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A.N  EXPOSITION 


ERRORS  AND  FALLACIES 


IN 


Rear-Admiral  Ammen's  Pamphlet 


ENTITIiED 


"  THE  CERTAINTY  OF  THE  NICARAGdA  CANAL  CONTRASTED  WITH  THE 
UNCERTAINTIES  OF  THE  EADS  SHIP  RAILWAY." 


BY    E.   L.CORTHELL.C.    E. 


A.I>RI3L.,    1886. 


washington  : 
Gibson  Bros.,  Printers  and  Bookbinders. 

1886. 


AN  EXPOSITION 


Errors  and  Fallacies  in  Rear-Admiral  Ainnien's  Pamphlet 

ENTITIiED 

"THE  CERTAINTY  OF   THE   NICARAGUA  CANAL  CON- 
TRASTED  WITH   THE   UNCERTAINTIES 
OF  THE  EADS  SHIP  RAILWAY." 


It  is  to  l)e  regretted  that  an  officer  of  liigli  rank  in  tlie 
United  States  Navy  should  descend  to  such  undignified  per- 
sonalities as  appear  throughout  the  recent  pamphlet  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Ammen,  entitled  "  The  Certainty  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal  contrasted  with  the  Uncertainties  of  the  Eads  Ship 
Railway." 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  descend  to  such  a 
level  in  discussing  this  subject,  but  to  point  out  briefly  some 
of  the  labored  misstatements  and  distortions  of  facts  that 
everywhere  appear  in  the  pamphlet  mentioned.  Its  exten- 
sive circulation  in  Congress,  for  the  purpose  of  defeating  the 
Ship  Railway  bill,  makes  it  necessary  to  point  out  the  Ad- 
miral's misstatements. 

The  frontispiece  of  his  pamphlet  represents  the  American 
Isthmus  at  Nicaragua  as  lately  reconstructed  to  suit  the  plans  of 
Engineer  Menocal,  with  its  water  level  raised  and  extended 
and  its  irregularities  toned  down  by  the  contemplated  canal 
construction.  The  profile  as  given  of  the  Tehuantepec  Isth- 
mus, however,  shows  nature  in  her  wild  state,  unmodified  by 


sion  of  broad  valleys  formed  by  the  Jumuapa,  Sarabia,  Malatengo,  and 
Chichihua  rivers ;  between  these  vallej'S  there  are  extensive  table-lands, 
with  no  high  or  prominent  dividing  summit  between  them,  but  they  are 
interspersed  with  isolated  hills  and  detached  ranges  from  one  to  five  hun- 
dred feet  in  height,  the  whole  forming  an  extensive  interior  basin,  having  a 
gentle  inclination  towards  the  summit,  and  bordered  on  its  eastern  and 
western  sides  by  irregular  mountain  ranges,  spurs  of  the  main  Cordillera 
that  runs  through  the  entire  continent,  and  which  makes  at  this  point  one 
of  the  most  marked  depressions  to  be  found  in  its  whole  length.  From 
this  basin  the  line  passes  through  a  valley  formed  by  a  stream  called  the 
Pozo  de  Agua,  to  the  plains  of  Tarifa,  an  elevated  level  plateau  six  miles 
in  extent.  Crossing  these  plains,  the  line  reaches  the  Portillo  de  Tarifa, 
the  lowest  and  also  the  most  accessible  of  the  many  passes  through  this 
general  depression  in  the  main  mountain  chain.  From  the  Portillo  de 
Tarifa  the  line  descends  to  the  Pacific  plains  (reaching  them  ii8  miles  from 
Minatitlan)  by  a  uniform  grade,"  [i  foot  in  loo  feet,  or  52-/^  feet  per  mile ; 
this  is  the  maximum  grade  and  there  is  only  one  place  where  it  occurs] 
"  following  a  succession  of  valleys  through  the  intervening  foot-hills. 
These  valleys  are  generally  narrow,  having  very  abrupt  slopes  on  their 
sides.  Fortunately,  the  line  can  be  kept  near  the  bottom  of  the  valleys, 
avoiding  any  difficult  or  questionable  class  of  construction.  The  heaviest 
excavations  will  be  in  cutting  through  spurs  of  the  hill  sides,  or  through 
divides  between  adjacent  valleys.  Across  the  Pacific  plains  the  line  can  be 
given  almost  any  desired  direction,  the  surface  being  remarkably  even  and 
uniform  in  character."  *  *  *  "  Many  varieties  of  valuable  timber  are 
found,  very  durable  in  character,  and  suitable  for  either  permanent  or  tem- 
porary work  in  construction,  throughout  the  entire  line,  with  the  exception 
of  about  twenty  miles  at  each  end  of  it. 

"  Good  building  stone  is  found  near  the  line  at  short  intervals  after 
leaving  the  valley  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  river.  Granite,  limestone,  sand- 
stone and  quartzite  are  among  the  varieties  of  stone  available  for  purposes 
of  construction. 

"  The  principal  rock  cuttings  to  be  encountered  near  the  summit  will  be 
in  a  clay  slate  formation,  limestone  appearing  at  a  lower  elevation,  and 
granite  in  the  higher  ranges  on  each  side  of  the  line."  *  *  *  "A  care- 
ful instrumental  survey  of  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  shows  that 
there  is  at  ordinary  tide,  fifteen  feet  of  water  over  it.  Surveys  and 
soundings  made  during  the  last  thirty  years  give  conclusive  evidence  that 
this  bar  has  changed  very  little  during  that  time.  Borings  to  the  depth  of 
twenty-six  feet  encountered  no  other  material  than  sand  and  clay,  much 
the  larger  portion  being  sand ;  a  stratum  of  clay  was  found  at  the  bottom 
of  the  borings.  This  bar  has  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  bar  at  the 
mouth  of  the  South  Pass  of  the  Mississippi  river,  except  that  it  has  less 
than  one-fourth  the  distance  across  it,  from  twenty-six  feet  depth  of  water 
on  the  inside  to  the  same  depth  on  the  outside,  and  it  can  be  deepened  by 
the  same  methods  that  gave  such  remarkable  results  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  river." 


The  statements  made  qiTite  frequently  by  Admiral  Ammen 
tliat  no  actual  location  and  profile  have  been  made  evidently 
need  no  further  discussion,  nor  do  any  of  the  arguments, 
drawn  from  these  misstatements,  require  further  notice. 


REVIEW  OF  SOME   OF  ADMIRAL  AMMEN's   STATEMENTS   ABOUT   THE 
BILL  NOW  BEFORE  CONGRESS. 


In  criticising  the  Ship  Railway  Bill,  Admiral  Ammen  says  : 
"  There  is,  however,  no  mention  in  the  bill  of  the  maximum 
toll  rate  upon  which  vessels  would  be  transported,  it  might 

be  fixed  at  $4  and  $8  per  ton." "  Neither  Mr.  Corthell  in 

his  '  Scientific  Solution,'  nor  Captain  Eads  in  his  bill  gives 
the  intended  rate  of  toll  over  his  proposed  Ship  Railway." 

An  examination  of  the  bill  shows  that  authority  is  given 
to  the  directors  representing  the  United  States  and  Mexican 
Governments  to  reduce  the  tolls  whenever  the  net  income  is 
greater  than  ten  per  cent,  on  the  capital  of  the  Company, 
which  is  limited  in  the  bill  to  $100,000,000.  If  Admiral 
Ammen  and  his  co-projectors  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  are 
correct  in  the  estimates  they  have  made  of  the  tonnage 
likely  to  use  an  Isthmian  transit-way,  it  is  apparent  that, 
under  the  provisions  of  the  bill  referred  to,  no  unreason- 
able tolls  could  be  exacted  from  commerce.  But,  aside  from 
this,  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  Company  would,  even 
if  it  had  the  power,  impose  such  tolls  as  would  drive  com- 
merce away  from  it.  Certainly  ten  per  cent,  interest  on  the 
amount  invested  is  not  an  unreasonable  return  to  the  capi- 
talists whose  money  goes  to  construct  the  work. 

Speaking  of  the  test  load  of  3,000  tons,  (increased  by 
consent  to  6,000,  and  the  second  year  to  7,000  tons,)  the 
Admiral  says ;  "  His  vessel  may  be  constructed  to  weigh 
2,900  tons,  built  expressly  to  make  a  land  journey,  with 
a  cargo  of  100  tons ! "     The  transportation  of  a  vessel  with 


6 

onlj  100  tons  of  cargo  would  not  be  considered  by  the  Board 
of  Engineers,  under  whose  inspection  the  test  must  be 
made,  as  answering  the  requirements  of  the  law.  The 
purpose  of  the  law  is  to  demonstrate  the  practicability  of 
the  work,  and  no  one,  unless  his  antagonism  to  the  project 
has  entirely  perverted  his  judgment,  would  suppose  that  the 
transportation  of  a  vessel,  especially  built  for  the  purpose 
and  of  much  greater  strength  than  ordinary  vessels,  with  a 
few  bags  of  grain,  or  a  few  tons  of  iron  as  a  cargo,  would 
authorize  or  receive  the  favorable  certificate  of  the  engineers 
upon  which  is  made  to  depend  the  Government  guaranty. 

In  speaking  of  that  clause  in  the  bill  which  relates  to 
filing  a  certified  copy  of  the  Mexican  Concession  with  the 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  within  three  months 
after  the  date  of  the  passage  of  the  act.  Admiral  Ammen 
says :  "  The  bill  recites  that  a  favorable  concession  exists, 
the  terms  of  which  are  to  remain  unknow^n  to  our  legislators." 
This  is  another  grossly  inaccurate  statement.  A  certified 
copy  of  the  Mexican  Concession  has  been  in  the  hands  of 
the  Commerce  Committee  of  the  House  during  all  its  dis- 
cussions, and  it  and  all  papers  relating  to  it  have  been  at 
their  disposal.  The  minority  report  of  the  Committee  gives 
the  Concession  in  full. 


WAR    VESSELS. 


On  page  5,  Admiral  Ammen  makes  the  statement  that  a 
war  vessel  would  not  float  after  being  transported  over  the 
Isthmus  on  the  railway.  This  statement  is  in  conflict  with 
the  opinion  of  a  host  of  the  most  prominent  naval  con- 
structors and  shipbuilders  of  the  world,  and  as  Admiral 
Ammen  could  no  doubt  command  a  ship  much  better  than 
he  could  build  one,  and  as  he  stands  almost  alone  in  his 
opinion  on  the  subject,  his  views  are  not  likely  to  have  very 


much  force.  Among  the  many  who  diifer  with  Admiral 
Ammen  on  the  subject  may  be  included  the  names  of  Com- 
modore Theo.  D.  Wilson,  the  present  Chief  Constructor  of 
the  U.  S.  Navy  ;  Commodore  J.  W.  Easby,  late  Chief  Con- 
structor U.  S.  Navy  ;  Mr.  Nathaniel  Barnaby,  Chief  Con- 
structor British  Navy ;  Sir  Edward  J.  Eeed,  late  Chief 
Constructor  British  Navy.  These  gentlemen  have  given  the 
most  decided  opinions  in  favor  of  the  entire  practicability  of 
transporting  laden  vessels  on  a  railway. 


THE   HAKBORS. 


Admiral  Ammen  refers  to  the  "  factitious  presentation  of 
science  in  the  '  Scientific  Solution,'  "  and  proffers  some  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  the  harbors  which  is  entirely  erroneous. 
He  says:  "  The  '  Scientific  Solution '  assumes  that  good  har- 
bors either  exist,  or  making  and  maintaining  them  is  a  bag- 
atelle, and  the  Eads'  bill  presupposes  the  fact  that  a  good 
harbor  on  both  coasts  is  known  to  all  men ;  has  the  great 
engineer  lost  his  faith  in  his  knowledge  of  the  Jetty  system, 
or  has  he  so  solved  it  that  it  gives  him  no  concern  ?  "  The 
facts  in  regard  to  the  harbors  are  fully  given  in  a  paper  pub- 
lished by  the  writer  about  the  first  of  January,  1886,  en- 
titled, "  The  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ship  Railway."  Careful 
surveys,  plans,  and  estimates  have  been  made  of  these  har- 
bors, and  their  exceptional  advantages  for  both  maritime  and 
strategic  purposes  have  been  fully  stated  in  several  publica- 
tions. The  writer,  having  spent  a  month  surveying  the  bar 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  river,  and  having  had 
some  little  experience  in  river  and  harbor  hydraulics,  is 
perfectly  confident  that  the  plans  for  deepening  this  bar 
from  15  feet,  {iiot  13  feet,)  now  existing,  to  30  feet  can 
be  done  at  the  estimated  expense,  which  is  not  great.  The 
"  harbor  "  subject  is  a  very  tender  one  with  Admiral  Am- 


8 

men,  because  of  the  total  want  of  harbors  at  the  termini  of 
the  proposed  Nicaragua  Canal.  What  was  once  a  harbor  at 
Greytown  is  now  wholly  destroyed.  The  San  Juan  river,  to 
the  current  of  which  was  due  whatever  depth  of  water  ever 
existed  at  Greytown,  long  ago  deserted  its  old  bed,  and  now 
discharges  its  waters,  through  the  Eio  Colorado,  in  Costa 
Rican  territory.  There  is  a  careful  avoidance  by  Admiral 
Ammen  and  his  friends  of  all  discussions  of  Nicaraguan  har- 
bors. 

EARTHQUAKES. 


Those  informed  on  the  Isthmian  question  will  be  surprised 
at  the  Admiral  bringing  forward  the  danger  from  earthquakes 
to  the  Ship  Railway ;  it  being  well  known  that  the  greatest 
prevalence  and  most  marked  results  of  earthquakes  are  along 
the  line  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal.  The  actual  perversion  of 
facts,  by  quoting  only  a  part  of  a  statement  made  by  Rear- 
Admiral  Shufeldt,  on  page  106  of  the  latter's  report,  is  espe- 
cially marked.  The  following,  on  the  same  page,  but  omitted 
by  the  Admiral,  will  show  hoAV  he  has  perverted  what  Shu- 
feldt said  on  this  subject : 

"The  singular  freedom  of  this  region  from  volcanoes,  both  active  and 
extinct,  and,  in  consequence,  the  less  probability  of  violent  earth- 
quakes, is  certainly  an  important  consideration  in  favor  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Tehuantepec." 

The  Admiral  brings  up  another  objection,  which  was 
brought  forward  by  him  three  years  ago  and  then  refuted,  as 
to  the  prevalence  of  high  winds  on  the  Tehuantepec  Isthmus. 
He  says : 

"  Were  it  to  be  conceded  that  earthquakes  were  exceptional,  or  that  were 
they  to  occur  they  would  do  no  more  harm  to  the  vessel  than  would  be 
done  '  to  the  load  of  hay  passing  over  a  stony  road,'  another  difficulty  pre- 
sents itself  in  the  '  northers,'  of  which  Shufeldt  makes  mention  on  page 
107  : 

"  'The  northers  that  are  so  common  in  the  winter  season,  never  bring 
with  them  rain  as  they  generally  do  on  the  Atlantic  slope  and  on  the  table- 


9 

lands,  but  instead  clouds  of  dust  and  drifting  sand  are  caught  up  bj  these 
violent  winds,  and  are  driven  across  the  plain  in  a  southerly  direction,  and 
finally  fall  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.'  " 

The  foUomng  paragraph  from  the  report  of  Mr.  Van  Brock- 
lin,  who,  as  before  stated,  has  spent  several  years  on  the  Isth- 
mus, is  sufficient  proof  of  the  absence  of  destructive  tornadoes  : 

"  By  reason  of  the  peculiar  topographical  formation  of  the  Isthmus,  there 
is  an  almost  constant  interchange  of  air  currents  between  the  two  oceans. 
The  direction  of  such  winds  as  are  prevalent,  coincides  very  nearly  with 
the  line  of  the  railway.  The  very  frail  construction  of  the  principal  por- 
tion of  the  houses  on  the  Isthmus,  covered  as  they  are  with  large  and  high 
palm  roofs,  extending  beyond,  and  generally  separated  from  their  walls, 
the  exposed  places  in  which  many  of  them  stand,  and  the  absence  of  any 
evidence  of  injury  to  them,  induces  the  belief  that  very  strong  winds  are 
unknown  on  the  Isthmus." 

(See  also  the  recent  letter  of  Mr.  Yan  Brocklin,  page  31, 
and  that  of  Mr.  Thayer,  page  33.) 

This  statement  agrees  with  the  observation  of  the  writer,  and 
of  other  engineers  who  have  remained  there  any  length  of 
time. 


EXCESSIVE  RAINFALL. 


On  page  8,  the  Admiral  speaks  of  the  excessive  rainfall  on 
the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  saying  :  "  I  may  add  of  rainfalls 
of  23  inches  in  as  many  hours."  If  he  intends  by  these  words 
to  convey  the  impression  that  23  inches  of  rain  falls  in  23  con- 
secutive hours,  the  statement  is  a  misrepresentation  as  regards 
any  part  of  Mexico,  and  shows  the  Admiral's  ignorance  of  the 
conditions  existing  at  Tehuantepec.  The  actual  gauging  of  the 
rainfall  shows  the  total  for  one  year  to  be  about  100  inches 
near  Minatitlan,  the  Gulf  terminus  of  the  railway.  The  record 
at  Nicaragua  shows  an  annual  downpour  of  102  inches,  with 
nearly  6  inches  in  one  day.  The  railway  has  the  advantage 
of  being  built  ahove  the  floods,  while  the  canal  must  be  under- 
neath them. 


10 

PRACTICABILITY    OF    THE    SHIP  RAILWAY. 

In  reference  to  the  practicability  of  constructing  and  haul- 
ing ships  over  a  railway,  a  question  which  seems  to  be  un- 
solved in  the  mind  of  the  Admiral,  it  is  proper  to  say  that 
as  the  Ship  Railway  Company  agrees  to  construct  its  railway 
and  put  it  into  successful  operation  before  the  guaranty 
asked  for  attaches,  the  question  as  to  whether  it  is  practic- 
able to  build  and  operate  it  is  one  of  little  importance  to  the 
Government.  The  report  of  the  House  Committee  on  Com- 
merce contains  the  following : 

"  It  is  apparent  that  under  the  terms  of  the  guarantee  the  question  as  to 
whether  a  ship  railway  is  practicable  is  one  with  which  the  United  States 
Government  has  very  little  concern.  If  any  part  of  the  guarantee  was  to 
take  effect  before  final  completion  of  the  work,  the  question  of  the  practic- 
ability of  the  project  would  be  a  vital  one ;  but  inasmuch  as  the  capitalists 
who  advance  the  money  to  construct  the  road  assume  all  of  the  engineering 
risks  involved  in  its  construction,  and  inasmuch  as  it  must  be  practically 
demonstrated  to  be  a  success  before  the  Government  becomes  liable  to  pay 
anything,  the  question  of  practicability  is  one  to  the  consideration  of  which 
it  is  really  unnecessary  for  Congress  to  devote  itself.  In  this  connection, 
however,  it  is  but  proper  to  say  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  most  able  and 
well-known  engineers,  naval  architects,  and  shipbuilders  of  the  world  the 
construction  of  a  ship  railway  at  Tehuantepec,  in  accordance  with  the 
plans  which  have  been  submitted  to  them  by  Mr.  Eads,  is  entirely  prac- 
ticable. Indeed,  many  of  these  experts  go  much  further  than  this,  and  de- 
clare that  a  railway  is  preferable  to  a  canal,  first,  in  the  economy  with 
which  it  can  be  constructed ;  second,  in  the  facility  with  which  it  may  be 
enlarged  when  commerce  demands  its  enlargement ;  third,  in  the  economy 
with  which  it  can  be  operated,  and,  fourth,  in  its  ability  to  transport  ves- 
sels with  greater  rapidity  and  less  delay." 


ENGINEERS   AND   NAVAL   OFFICERS   WHO   BELIEVE   THE    SHIP  RAIL- 
WAY  PRACTICABLE. 

On  page  9,  the  Admiral  says :  "  Of  the  many  recommenda- 
tions of  the  railway  in  the  '  Scientific  Solution '  there  is  not 
one  of  a  railroad  engineer."     The  following  are  the  names  of 


11 

a  few  American  civil  engineers  and  railroad  managers  of 
the  highest  standing,  who  have  carefully  examined  the 
subject  and  have  pronounced  the  ship  railway  entirely 
practicable  :    Genl.  William    Sooy   Smith,  Henry    Flad,  H. 

D.  Whitcomb,  C.  Shaler  Smith,  T.  C.  Clarke,  6.  Chanute, 
late  chief  engineer  of  the  Erie  Eailway ;  Kichard  P.  Mor- 
gan, Jr.,  a  railroad  expert  of  Illinois,  and  formerly  one  of  the 
State  Eailway  Commissioners  ;  Clemens  Herschel,  of  Bos- 
ton ;  Charles  Paine,  past  president  of  the  Am.  Soc.  Civil 
Engineers  ;  Col.  H.  F.  Douglass,  chief  engineer  Baltimore 
&  Ohio  E.K.  Extension  to  New  York  ;  Jas.  B.  Francis,  of 
Lowell,  Mass.,  past  president  of  the  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers ; 
Thos.  C.  Keefer,  C.  M.  G.,  member  Inst.  C.  E.,  London,  Vice- 
Prest.  Am.  Soc.  C.   E.;    Eobt.  H.   Thurston,  G.  Bouscaren, 

E.  T.  Jeffery,  general  manager  Illinois  Central  E.E.,  and  to 
these  we  could  add  twenty  or  thirty  more  who  have  also 
expressed  by  letter  their  unqualified  faith  in  its  success. 

But  not  alone  among  engineers  is  found  numberless  be- 
lievers in  the  practicability  of  the  Ship  Eailway.  The  Ad- 
miral will  find  scores  of  them  in  the  Navy.  The  writer  refers 
to  a  few  of  them,  in  addition  to  the  two  already  mentioned, 
who  have  expressed  themselves  as  confident  that  war  or  mer- 
chant vessels  may  be  transported  over  land  with  safety  on  a 
properly  constructed  railway :  The  late  Captain  Edward  Hartt, 
U.  S.  Naval  Constructor ;  Mr.  F.  L.  Fernald,  U.  S.  Naval  Con- 
structor ;  Commander  N.  H.  Farquhar  ;  Eear- Admiral  E.  W. 
Shufeldt,  U.  S.  N.;  Eear  Admiral  S.  P.  Carter,  U.  S.  N.,  and 
many  younger  officers  of  the  Navy. 


MANCHESTER  SHIP  CANAL. 


On  page  11  occurs  the  following  sentence  :  "  Despite  of 
this  assertion,  the  argument  of  our  great  Eads  abroad  that  a 
canal  was  impracticable,  and  the  obstruction  for  years  by  the 


12 

railway  interests  of  Great  Britain,  the  Manchester  Ship  Canal 
is  now  in  progress  of  construction."  In  this  sentence  are 
two  misstatements.  First,  Mr.  Eads  did  not  argue  that  the 
Manchester  Ship  Canal  was  impracticable  ;  and,  second,  it  is 
not  as  jet  under  construction.  Mr.  Eads  appeared  before 
the  Committees  of  Parliament  and  proved  that  if  the  lower 
ten  miles  of  the  canal  was  located  as  proposed  in  the  middle 
of  the  estuary  of  the  Mersey,  the  works  would  rapidly  re- 
duce the  tidal  capacity  of  the  estuary  and  ruin  the  Liverpool 
docks,  and  destroy  that  port.  The  Committee,  after  hearing 
Mr.  Eads,  rejected  the  bill  unanimously,  although  it  had  been 
reported  upon  favorably  by  two  previous  Committees. 

During  the  hearing,  Mr.  Eads  suggested,  in  answer  to  a 
question  of  the  Queen's  Counsel  for  Manchester,  that  these 
ruinous  results  would  not  occur  if  these  ten  miles  were  lo- 
cated along  either  margin  of  the  estuary.  The  plan  was  thus 
modified,  and  the  bill  for  its  construction  has  since  been  ap- 
proved by  Parliament. 


NO    CANAL   AT   TEHUANTEPEC. 


On  the  same  page  occurs  the  following  : 

"  Section  2  of  the  Eads  Ship  Railway  bill  actually  proposes  the  right  to 
substitute  canalization  over  any  sections  of  his  route  deemed  desirable  bj 
him,  without  requiring  anj  stated  rate  of  speed,  or  stating  what  the  depth 
and  prism  of  his  canal  would  be !  This  effectually  disposes  of  the  pre- 
tension   of  speed    across   the   Isthmus    of  Tehuantepec." "  But   this 

proposed  canal  system  of  Captain  Eads  establishes  the  fact  that  he  is  aware 
that  on  these  marshy  and  unsolid  grounds  a  solid  foundation  for  a  Ship 
Railway  could  not  be  made  saye  at  an  enormous  cost,  and  then  with  yery 
uncertain  result,  whilst  the  cost  of  excavating  a  canal  prism  would  not  be 
great,  and  would  inyolye  no  doubtful  result,  except  as  to  water  supply  and 
the  establishment  of  necessary  surface  drainage." 

This  statement  is  doubtless  due  to  a  want  of  knowledge  of 
the  facts  upon  the  part  of  the  Admiral.  In  the  concession 
this  means  a  channel^  and  not  a  canal,  between  the  Laguna 


13 

Superior  and  the  Pacific.  As  a  canal  will  cost  about  six 
times  as  much  per  mile  as  a  railway,  it  would  only  be 
resorted  to  where  the  railway  cannot  be  constructed.  As 
the  Lagoon  on  the  Pacific  side  will  be  one  of  the  termini  of 
the  railway,  some  work  will  have  to  be  done  in  the  nature 
of  canalization  to  deepen  and  improve  it,  and  this  is  the 
only  work  of  the  kind  proposed. 

In  1881,  before  any  surveys  had  been  made  by  us  except 
to  examine  the  passes  through  the  central  division,  it  was 
contemplated  to  locate  the  northern  terminus  on  the  Uspan- 
apa,  a  large  tributary  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  ; 
and  fearing  that  within  a  few  miles  of  the  former  the  ground 
would  prove  marshy,  a  provision  was  put  into  the  ship  rail- 
way bill,  then  pending,  providing  for  a  canal  through  such 
portion  as  might  prove  unsuited  for  a  railway.  Further  ex- 
aminations led  to  the  abandonment  of  that  route  and  to  the 
location  of  the  line  on  the  other  side  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  river. 
From  the  northern  terminus  at  Minatitlan  to  the  Lagoon,  134 
miles  distant,  not  a  single  foot  of  marshy  or  even  doubtful 
ground  is  encountered,  and  no  canal  whatever  is  needed. 


SUEZ  CANAL. 


On  page  12  the  Admiral  charges  the  writer  with  making, 
without  any  excuse,  unreliable  statements  in  regard  to  the 
rate  of  travel  in  the  Suez  Canal.  What  the  writer  stated 
was  this  : 

"  In  the  Welland  Ship  Canal  the  speed  is  ofie  mile  per  hour,  and  the 
same  on  the  North  Holland  Ship  Canal  to  the  port  of  Amsterdam.  (In- 
ternal Commerce  U.  S.,  1885,  p.  494.) 

"  In  the  Suez  Canal — the  most  important  ship  canal  in  the  world— the 
time  required  to  pass  through,  one  hundred  miles,  was  Jifty  hours,  in 
1884,  or  at  a  rate  of  two  miles  per  hour.  The  average  time  of  an  un- 
disturbed passage,  in  1884,  was  38^  hours.  About  25  per  cent,  of  the 
distance  is  through  deep  lakes,  and  40  per  cent,  through  shallow  lakes, 
only  35"  per  cent,  being  through  dry  excavations.     The  speed  by  regulation 


14 

is  limited  to  five  knots,  but  this  is  a  dangerous  one  for  steamers,  for  they 
are  liable  to  run  aground.  From  1870  to  [883,  eleven  per  cent,  of  all  ves- 
sels went  aground. 

"  It  was  stated  in  evidence  before  the  Canal  Committee  of  Parliament 
that  in  1882,  the  passage  of  ten  ships  through  the  canal  would  choke  it.'' 

The  time  of  passage  referred  to  is  the  total  time  required 
to  pass  through  the  canal,  in  chiding  the  frequent  groundings 
and  delays  by  darkness  and  by  waiting  for  other  vessels  to 
pass.  The  writer  refers  for  confirmation  of  his  statement  to 
the  "  Maritime  Canal  of  Suez,"  by  Professor  J.  E.  Nourse, 
U.  S.  N.;  to  a  paper  recently  read  before  the  Austrian  Society 
of  Engineers  and  Architects,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  "  the 
time  of  an  undisturhed  passage  in  1884  was  38^  hours,  while 
the  total  average,  since  opening  the  canal,  is  41  hours  22 
minutest  In  that  paper  it  is  further  stated  :  "  The  long  time 
in  passing  the  canal  is  a  serious  objection.  The  maximum 
speed  allowed  is  five  knots  per  hour.  This  and  the  time  lost 
in  the  turn-outs  makes  the  trip  a  long  one."  Reference  is 
also  made  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  F.  R.  Conder,  (who  is  a 
canal  advocate,)  taken  before  the  ParHamentary  Committee, 
June  21,  1883,  page  127  of  the  report.  Reference  is  also 
made  to  Vol.  Ixvi,  p.  194,  Proceedings  of  the  Institution 
of  the  Civil  Engineers  of  Great  Britain,  where  Sir  Charles  A. 
Hartley  says  that  the  greatest  speed  through  the  lakes,  where 
there  is  open  and  deep  water,  is,  however,  reduced  to  such 
an  extent  in  the  canal  proper  as  to  make  the  average  through 
the  entire  canal  less  than  five  miles  an  hour,  in  which  state- 
ment he  refers  to  effective  steaming,  that  is,  the  speed  when 
the  steamer  is  actually  in  motion. 

NICARAGUA   CANAL. 

On  page  13  of  his  pamphlet  the  Admiral  quotes  the  writer 
as  saying  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  : 

"  The  most  complete  and  careful  estimate  of  the  cost  of  this  work,  made 
by  Major  McFarland,  United  States  Engineer,  is  $140,000,000,  witli  labor 
assumed  at  $1.00  per  day." 


15 

The  Admiral  adds : 

"  Mr.  Corthell  knows  even  better  than  the  public  that  Major  McFarland's 
'  estimate,'  if  it  may  be  called  by  that  title,  was  not  on  the  line  of  the 
present  location,  so  far  as  canalization  is  concerned,  except  from  Brito  to 
the  junction  of  the  Rio  del  Medio  routes,  a  distance  of  eight  miles,  and 
that  the  actual  line  of  canal  excavation  between  the  seas  is  now  forty  miles, 
in  lieu  of  the  sixty-one  miles  then  given  on  instrumental  surveys.  He 
gives  the  distance  from  sea  to  sea  at  i86  miles,  when  it  is  170,  and  the  num- 
ber of  locks  from  14  to  20,  when  there  are  but  7.  Is  Mr.  Corthell  really  anxious 
to  enlighten  the  public,  or  to  abuse  its  confidence  ?  I  am  quite  aware  that 
he  may  plead  ignorance;  with  what  justice  is  known  to  him  and  others 
far  better  than  to  the  public." 

The  above  is  wholly  unjust.  The  survey  of  Mr.  Menocal, 
establishing  the  length  of  the  canal  at  170  miles,  and  7  as  the 
number  of  the  locks,  making  also  other  very  important  modi- 
fications in  the  location  and  plans  on  which  Major  McFarland 
made  his  estimates  and  which  were  before  Congress  last 
winter,  was  not  given  to  the  public  until  JVovemher  26,  1885, 
and  then  only  in  an  article  without  signature  in  the  American 
Engineer,  of  Chicago.  The  writer  is  charged  with  wilfully 
holding  back  information  about  these  surveys  and  plans  in 
an  address  delivered  and  printed  ^w^w*^  26, 1885,  three  vionths 
before. 

As  to  the  abuse  of  the  public  confidence,  what  should  be 
said  of  Admiral  Ammen  for  bringing  forward  a  profile  of  the 
Tehuantepec  Route  made  from  a  survey  of  35  years  ago,  and 
putting  it  before  the  public  as  the  route  of  the  Ship  Railway, 
omitting  entirely  to  mention  an  exhaustive  survey  made  for 
this  railway  two  years  ago  and  published  for  the  benefit  of 
the  public  ? 

The  unfamiliarity  of  the  Admiral  with  the  plans  of  the 
Nicaragua  Canal  is  seen,  in  his  statement,  on  page  14  of  his 
pamphlet,  that  the  locks  are  designed  to  lift  ships  of  ^^  feet 
draught  from  the  Pacific  to  the  lake  level,  although  Mr. 
Menocal's  table  of  depths  shows  that  nearly  six  miles  of  the 
canal  on  this  section  is  to  have  only  28  feet  depth,  and  that 
over  40  miles  of  the  Atlantic  division  is  to  have  also  only  28 


16 

feet  depths  and  that  the  locks  themselves  are  to  have  only  29 
feet  depth. 

Again  the  Admiral  says  :  "  Wherever  the  material  to  be 
excavated  is  not  fully  known  through  borings,  it  is  given  as 
rock  and  estimated  for  rock."  He  probably  intended  to  say 
absence  of  borings,  as  there  is  no  record  of  any  having  been 
made,  and  to  consider  the  material  as  rock  is  really  erring 
in  favor  of  a  low  estimate,  for  the  quantity  and  cost 
would  be  immensely  greater,  if  it  should  prove  to  be  earth 
in  a  cut  nearly  three  miles  in  length,  of  an  average  depth  of 
150  feet.  M.  de  Lesseps  would  be  very  glad  to  find  solid 
rock  in  his  great  Culebra  cut.  The  suppressed  estimate  of 
Major  McFarland,  made  November  18,  1874,  and  only  given 
to  the  public  by  Major  McFarland  himself,  after  much  provo- 
cation, incites  the  ire  of  Admiral  Ammen,  whenever  it  is 
mentioned,  for  the  reason  probably  that  it  is  a  fair  estimate 
of  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered,  and  of  the  cost  of  the 
work.  The  whole  report  shows  a  careful  examination  of  the 
subject,  and  no  doubt  the  Major  is  abundantly  able  to  de- 
fend his  estimate. 

About  three  years  ago  Dr.  Cardenas,  the  then  president- 
elect of  Nicaragua,  requested  the  writer  to  submit  a  propo- 
sition for  making  the  surveys  and  plans  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  San  Juan  river  and  harbor,  giving  as  a  reason 
that  the  government  of  Nicaragua  had  become  convinced 
that  nothing  could  be  expected  of  the  company  represented 
by  Mr.  Menocal.  Studies  of  the  harbor  of  Greytown  con- 
vinced the  writer  that  it  was  irretrievably  ruined,  and  that  it 
was  a  very  doubful,  if  not  impracticable,  task  to  permanently 
improve  it.  The  Avriter  mentions  this  simply  to  show  that  he 
has  had  special  as  well  as  general  reasons  for  ascertaining  the 
natural  conditions  existing  at  Nicaragua.  The  knowledge 
the  writer  is  charged  by  the  Admiral  with  having,  but  not 
using,  is  no  doubt  that  of  the  plans  from  time  to  time  promul- 
gated by  Mr.  Menocal,  who,  with  some  other  but  higher  officials 
of  the  United  States  Government,  has  devoted  much  of  his 


17 

time  to  this  scheme  for  several  years.  Their  various  surveys 
and  plans,  however,  have  not  in  any  way  modified  the  natural 
conditions  existiiig  at  the  Isthmus  of  Nicaragua,  and  Mr.  Men- 
ocal  and  Admiral  Ammen  must  not  feel  hurt  if  the  writer  and 
others  use  their  judgment  in  selecting  the  plans  and  esti- 
mates which  appear  to  them  to  be  most  reasonable  and  best 
considered.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  any  one  can  ac- 
quire full  knowledge  of  the  various  plans,  surveys,  and  esti- 
mates which  Admiral  Ammen  is  in  the  habit  of  making  of 
the  Nicaragua  Canal  route.  The  plans  of  Mr.  Menocal 
should  not  be  considered  final,  if  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  they  are  periodically  undergoing  very  important  mod- 
ifications. The  examination  of  the  plans  which  he  now 
brings  forward  shows  how  far  from  a  state  of  perfection,  and 
how  poorly  adapted  they  are  to  accomplish  the  work  for 
which  the  former  plans  were  found  by  Admiral  Ammen  and 
Mr.  Menocal  to  be  unfitted. 

It  was  recently  ascertained  that  the  canal  planned  in 
1872-1873,  and  essentially  the  one  laid  before  Congress  with 
the  treaty  last  winter,  would  not  accommodate  either  the 
ships  or  the  traffic  expected.  The  new  plans  now  promul- 
gated are  intended  to  correct  these  important  omissions  in 
the  earlier  plans  and  to  provide,  it  is  said,  an  adequate  chan- 
nel for  ships  of  52  feet  beam  and  for  a  traffic  of  12,000,000 
tons  per  annum,  and  an  ultimate  traffic  of  20,000,000  tons. 
Though  the  dimensions  are  much  greater  and  the  prices  larger, 
the  detailed  cost  of  the  canal  is  less.  This  happy  result  has  been 
obtained  by  a  hasty  survey  made  through  a  densely  wooded 
country,  "  over  ground  alternately  swampy  and  hilly,  and 
covered  with  a  dense  vegetation,  through  which  every  foot  of 
the  trail  had  to  be  cut  with  a  machette,  and  where  travelling 
was  fatiguing  in  the  extreme,  officers  and  men  being  com- 
pelled in  many  instances  to  go  long  distances  buried  to  the 
waist  in  the  mud  and  water,  with  a  very  uncertain  bottom  to 
stand  upon."  (See  synopsis  of  Engineer  Menocal's  report  of 
recent  date.) 


18 

When  this  hasty  and  very  preliminary  work  is  compared 
with  the  surveys  of  the  Tehuantepec  Isthmus  for  the  Ship 
Railway,  occupying  nearly  two  years,  the  greater  reliability 
and  accuracy  of  the  latter  stand  out  prominently.  It  seems 
proper  to  the  writer  to  still  rely  upon  the  estimate  made  by 
Major  McFarland  for  the  construction  of  the  Nicaragua 
Canal,  for  the  reason  that  it  appears  to  him  to  be  the  best 
considered.  Only  one  exception  can  be  taken  to  it,  in  the 
writer's  opinion,  and  that  is  in  the  price  of  labor,  which  was 
estimated  at  $1.00  per  day.  This,  by  recent  developments 
on  the  Panama  Canal,  has  been  shown  to  be  too  low.  The 
writer  is  informed  by  Mr.  C.  Colne,  general  agent  (in  this 
country)  of  the  Panama  Canal,  that  the  average  cost  of  labor 
employed  by  the  Canal  Company  is  $2.00  per  day.  As  Major 
McFarland's  estimate  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  was  $140,000,- 
000,  it  does  not  seem  unreasonable  to  place  the  cost  at 
present  at  $200,000,0m)  if  we  double  the  cost  of  the  labor. 

INADEQUACY   OF  THE   NICARAGUA   CANAL. 

Let  us  see  if  the  Nicaragua  Canal  as  now  designed  by  Mr. 
Menocal  will  accommodate  a  traffic  of  12,000,000  tons,  which 
has  to  pass  through  rocky  excavations  and  other  dangerous 
navigations,  and  7iot  through  a  channel  excavated  in  sandy 
material  like  that  of  the  Suez  Canal.  The  accompanying 
sketch  shows  the  cross-sections  of  the  proposed  Nicaragua 
Canal  in  earth  and  rock  cuttings,  the  present  sections  of  the 
Suez  Canal,  and  those  recommended  for  that  Canal  by  the 
distinguished  International  Commission  of  Engineers  which 
recently  examined  the  question  of  its  enlargement.  A  glance 
at  the  ship  for  which  the  Nicaragua  Canal  is  intended,  and 
the  comparative  sections,  wiU  show  how  utterly  inadequate  is 
this  proposed  canal.  The  impossibility,  practically,  of  push- 
ing a  steamer  or  towing  a  sailing  vessel  through  the  seven 
miles  of  rock  prism,  whose   dimensions  are   eighty   feet   at 


3 


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stetDwooo 


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«  »  -MS 


20 

bottom,  and  eighty  feet  at  the  surface  of  the  water ^  about  the 
width  of  the  Erie  Canal,  is  very  plainly  seen  and  appreciated. 
In  Mr.  Scott  Russell's  Naval  Architecture,  chapters  xxxi  and 
xxxii,  appears  the  following,  relating  to  vessels  moving 
through  canals  : 

"  The  water  excavated  from  the  way  of  the  ship  causes  a  continual  accu- 
mulation of  water  in  the  region  of  the  canal  towards  which   the  ship  is 

moving." "If  this  wave  travel  ahead  of  the  ship  only  one-fourth  of 

the  pace  of  the  ship,  the  accumulation  will  be  quadrupled;  one-eighth 
will  make  it  eightfold,  and  so  on,  until  the  progress  of  the  ship  becomes 
extremely  difficult,  or  impossible.  This  is  what  constantly  takes  place  as 
the  rise  of  the  ship,  and  the  pace  in  a  narrow  and  shallow  channel  becomes 
greater.    Practically,  working  at  high  speed  becomes  not  difficult  or  costly, 

but   impracticable." "The    consequences    of    this    rapid    increase   of 

head  accumulation,  which  takes  place  as  the  speed  of  the  wave  in  ad- 
vance of  the  vessel  diminishes,  are  very  serious.  First,  it  throws  the  ship's 
head  up  out  of  trim ;  next,  it  increases  the  pressure  of  water  on  her  bow ; 
third,  it  makes  her  travel  up-hill ;  fourth,  it  produces  a  backward  current 
along  her  sides.  And  these  hindrances  to  speed  accumulate  rapidly,  much 
more  rapidly  than  as  the  square  of  the  resistance,  until  the  amount  be- 
comes insuperable ;  that  is,  many  times  the  resistance  due  to  the  law  of  the 
square  of  the  speed." "It  is  now  necessary  to  notice  the  comple- 
mentary effect  to  that  of  accumulation  in  advance  of  the  vessel;  it  is  sub- 
sidence of  water  astern.  It  being  known  that  the  excavated  water  is  sent 
on  in  advance  of  the  vessel,  it  becomes  plain  that  the  channel  out  of  which 
this  water  has  been  taken  must  have  its  height  lowered  by  the  subsidence 
of  the  water  into  the  vacant  channel  out  of  which  the  ship  has  been  drawn." 

With  these  principles  before  us,  and  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  this  narrow  prism  of  the  canal  covers  a  length  of  seven 
miles,  the  reader  can  form  an  accurate  idea  as  to  whether 
the  ship  will  pass  safely  through  the  designed  section  in 
rock  excavation  at  any  speed,  much  less  the  speed  of  jive 
miles  an  hour,  as  estimated  by  Mr.  Menocal.  Attention  is 
also  called  to  the  ratio  of  the  immersed  section  of  the  vessel 
to  the  water  prism  of  the  canal  as  shown  in  the  table  on  the 
diagram  of  sections. 

It  is  stated  in  Engineer  Menocal's  report  that  steamers  can 
make  eight  miles  an  hour  in  the  San  Juan  river.  The  width 
at  the  bottom  in  the  first  28  miles  from  the  lake  is  to  be 


21 

only  125  feet  in  many  places,  and  the  channel  is  often  very 
tortuous.  On  the  western  division  the  same  difficulty  exists 
in  certain  parts  of  the  crooked  and  narrow  valley  of  the  Kio 
Grande.  A  rate  of  speed  over  three  or  four  miles  an  hour  in 
these  tortuous  and  restricted  river  channels  would  be  a  dan- 
gerous one.  It  is  extremely  doubtful  if  the  large  sailing  ships 
which  now  go  around  Cape  Horn  could  be  towed  through  the 
canal  at  all.  It  would  be  necessary  for  the  tow  boats  to 
take  them  astern,  which  would  make  it  extremely  difficult  to 
steer  them  through  the  restricted  portions  of  the  canal. 

ESTIMATES    OF   THE    CANAL   NOT   SUFFICIENT. 

In  reference  to  the  cost  of  construction  there  is  much  to 
criticise.  The  upper  reach  of  the  San  Juan  river  for  twenty- 
four  miles  is  to  be  dredged  a  mean  depth  of  four  feet. 
The  plan  of  1873  required  the  removal  of  834,832  cubic 
yards  of  rock  under  water.  Mr.  Menocal  estimates  that  the 
present  plan  requires  the  removal  of  only  398,613  cubic 
yards.  Every  constructive  engineer  of  experience  will 
testify  that  from  twenty  to  forty  per  cent,  more  rock  is  usu- 
ally excavated  than  is  included  in  the  neat  section  of  the 
work  when  it  is  removed  from  below  water.  It  will  be 
fair  to  assume  that,  to  remove  this  398,613  cubic  yards 
of  rock  under  water,  will  require  the  removal  of  at  least 
500,000  yards.  The  price  estimated  is  $5  per  cubic  yard. 
In  the  opinion  of  the  writer  this  is  too  low.  It  has  cost 
to  remove  submarine  rock  in  New  York  harbor,  where 
every  facility  is  at  hand,  and  all  conditions  are  favorable, 
from  $16.30  per  cubic  yard  to  $34.00.  (See  detailed  report 
of  Gen.  Koy  Stone,  in  the  report  of  the  Chief  of  Engineers 
on  the  Hell  Gate  Improvements.)  On  the  Welland  Canal  the 
tenders  for  the  removal  of  from  15,000  to  20,000  cubic  yards 
of  rock  under  water  ranged  from  $9.90  to  $40.00  per  cubic 
yard.     The  work  was  done  at  the  former  figures,  but  the 


quantity  removed  to  give  a  clear  channel  depth  and  width 
was  34,600  cubic  yards.  (See  Engineering  News,  July  11, 
1885,  page  17.)  Under  the  circumstances  existing  at  the 
San  Juan  river,  with  labor  much  more  expensive  and  less 
effective,  with  appliances  difficult  to  obtain,  and  with  work 
scattered  over  twenty-four  miles,  $15.00  per  cubic  yard  is  not 
too  large  a  price  for  an  estimate.  The  addition  required 
to  the  estimate  from  this  cause  alone  will  therefore  be  $5,- 
506,935. 

The  harbor  at  Greytown,  heretofore  referred  to,  is  so  fully 
discussed  in  Major  McFarland's  report  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  allude  to  it  further,  except  to  state  that  corroborative 
testimony  is  found  in  a  paper  by  Professor  Henry  Mitchell  on 
"  The  Terminal  Points  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal,"  in  the  United 
States  Coast  Survey  Eepoi-t  of  1874,  and  also  in  the  report 
of  the  Committee  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  1866. 
Major  McFarland's  estimate  for  its  improvement  was  $9,500,- 
000.  The  estimate  in  1873  was  $2,822,630.  Mr.  Menocal's 
estimate  yic>w;  is  $1,766,625,  a  difference  of  $7,733,375  between 
that  of  Major  McFarland  and  that  of  Mr.  Menocal. 

The  question  of  successfully  improving  the  harbor  at 
Greytown  is  one  of  vital  importance  to  the  canal.  The 
problem  to  be  solved  is  how  to  restore  and  maintain 
a  harbor  that  has  been  completely  ruined  and  practically 
obliterated  by  forces  it  is  well  nigh  beyond  the  power  of 
man  to  control.  Natural  causes  have  diverted  from  their 
former  channel  the  waters  of  the  lower  San  Juan,  and  turned 
them  into  the  Colorado  river,  which  debouches  into  the  sea 
through  Costa  Rica.  When  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  our 
engineers  have  failed  to  deepen  the  channel  into  a  single 
harbor  along  the  whole  sweep  of  our  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
coasts,  except  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  the  folly  is  ap- 
parent of  intrusting  to  an  amateur  the  design  and  estimates 
for  a  work  as  difficult  as  that  at  Greytown. 

Not  only  in  this  country,  but  also  in  Europe,  has  the  im- 
provement of  harbors  taxed  the  skiU  of  the  ablest  hydrauUc 


23 

engineers  for  years,  and  immense  sums  have  been  expended 
by  them  in  improving  or  constructing  harbors  under  condi- 
tions much  less  compHcated  than  those  at  Greytown.  One 
of  the  most  difficult  problems  ever  presented  in  hydraulic 
engineering  is  the  construction  of  a  deep  and  safe  harbor  on  a 
sandy  beach  exposed,  like  that  at  Greytown,  to  the  severest 
storms  of  the  sea.  Yet  a  young  engineer,  of  very  limited 
experience,  has  been  intrusted  with  this  grave  problem,  and 
the  result  of  his  hasty  studies  and  his  periodical  plans  and 
estimates  for  this  immense  canal  and  its  harbors  occupied  for 
months  the  serious  attention  of  statesmen,  committees,  and 
senates. 

There  are  several  questionable  and  entirely  novel  methods 
proposed  for  the  Nicaragua  Canal  which  need  examination 
by  experienced  engineers  before  they  are  pronounced  prac- 
ticable. As  an  instance  may  be  mentioned  a  lock  with 
53  feet  lift  by  the  ordinary  process.  30  feet  is  the  greatest 
lift  on  any  constructed  canal,  and  that  on  the  small  Lehigh 
Canal.  The  tail-gate  of  the  lock  of  ^%-feet  lift,  88  feet  in 
height,  is  said  to  be  of  "  novel  design."     We  should  think  so  ! 

The  impounded  waters  of  the  San  Francisco  river  are  to  be 
held  back  by  a  dam  over  6,000  feet  long  and  51  feet  in  height. 

The  most  radical  and  objectionable  feature  of  the  canal 
plans  is,  however,  the  general  disturbance  of  the  regimen  of 
the  rivers  and  the  drainage  of  both  slopes.  Kivers  are  taken 
out  of  their  natural  beds,  from  the  valleys  in  which  they  have 
run  for  all  time,  and  are  turned  into  artificial  channels  and  in 
entirely  new  directions.  The  Rio  Grande  on  the  Pacific 
side,  a  mountain  stream,  and  at  times  a  torrent,  is  di- 
verted from  the  Pacific  towards  the  Atlantic,  that  is,  into 
Lake  Nicaragua. 

The  following  from  the  official  synopsis  of  Mr.  Menocal's 
recent  report  is  an  illustration  of  the  apparent  ease,  with 
which  the  new  regimen,  in  another  instance,  is  to  be  estab- 
lished : 


24 

"  At  this  point  the  Deseado  will  be  diverted  by  a  channel  north  of  the 
ciinal  a  distance  of  43,000  ft.  (Smiles;)  the  latter  will  be  protected  on 
both  sides  bj  drainage  channels  formed  partly  by  the  present  bed  of  the 
stream  and  partly  by  ditches.  The  remainder  of  the  canal,  also  about 
43,000  ft.,  from  the  Deseado  to  the  sea,  will  be  protected  by  embankments, 
an  artificial  channel  being  cut  south  of  the  canal  to  divert  the  river  San 
Juanillo,  and  another  north  of  the  canal  to  give  Laguna  Bernard  and  its 
tributaries  an  independent  outlet  to  the  sea." 

Other  river  beds  are  to  be  dried  up  to  give  room  for  tlie 
canal,  and  their  torrents  are  to  be  turned  in  any  direction, 
and  by  any  means,  necessary  to  give  the  canal  free  "  right 
of  way."  These  streams  are  to  be  carried  long  distances 
apart  from  the  canal,  either  inside  embankments  or  in 
channels  excavated  in  earth  or  rock.  The  general  contour 
lines  of  the  country  do  not  impede  the  plan  at  all,  and  it  may 
be  said  that  the  whole  drainage  system  of  the  Isthmus  is  en- 
tirely and  most  conveniently  rearranged.  Three  months' 
time  was  sufficient  to  make  surveys  that  entirely  modify  all 
previous  plans,  and  practically  remodel  the  Isthmus,  al- 
though it  required  with  other  extraordinary  changes,  deep 
rock  excavations,  one  of  which  for  about  three  ^niles  in  length, 
has  an  average  depth  of  149^  ft.,  and  a  maximum  depth  of 
204  ft.,  and  another  a  maximum  depth  of  318  ft.,  almost 
rivalHng  the  famous  Culebra  cut  of  the  Panama  Canal. 

One  important  object  of  Mr.  Menocal's  recent  survey,  as 
has  been  stated,  was  to  find  a  location  and  natural  conditions 
that  would  permit  enlargement  of  the  previous  dimensions, 
so  as  to  transport,  unimpeded^  a  traffic  r?/*  12,000,000  tons,  for 
"  the  Suez  Canal  is  unahle  to  accommodate  a  traffic  of  inore 
than  6,000,000  tons  per  year,  without  serious  delays  to  naviga- 
tion, owing  to  its  dimensions  and  insufficient  number  of  turn- 
outs." (American  Engineer,  November  26, 1885,  presumably 
written  by  Mr.  Menocal.)  Practically  the  same  is  stated  in 
the  official  synopsis  of  his  recent  report  to  Congress :  "  The 
apparent  insufficiency  of  the  Suez  Canal  to  accommodate  a 
traffic  of  more  than  6,000,000  tons  a  year,  without  serious 
delay  to  navigation  due  to  its  reduced  sectional  area  and  the 


25 

inadequate  number  of  its  turnouts,  shows  that  the  dimensions 
proposed  in  the  previous  reports  for  a  canal  across  Nicaragua 
should  be  considerably  enlarged."  The  above  statement  is 
correct,  as  far  as  the  Suez  Canal  is  concerned,  and  it  was  to 
remedy  this  very  serious  evil  that  the  International  Commis- 
sion was  called  together.  They  decided  that  certain  dimen- 
sions were  necessary  to  accommodate  the  present  traffic.  The 
Nicaragua  Canal  dimensions  are  intended  to  accommodate  a 
traffic  twice  as  great,  and  the  impression  is  conveyed  in 
the  official  report  that  the  plans  have  heen  Tnade  with  this 
special  object  in  view,  "  The  constant  object  has  been  to 
provide  for  a  canal  which  should  permit  the  passage  of  the 
largest  ships  now  engaged  in  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and 
a  traffic  of  no  less  than  12,000,000  tons  per  year,  without  re- 
striction, rather  than,  for  the  sake  of  economy  in  first  cost, 
propose  what  experience  at  Suez  has  proved  to  be  inadequate." 
(See  American  Engineer,  Nov.  26, 1885,  page  227.)  The  cross- 
sections  (see  sketch,  page  19;  show  that,  in  a  distance  of  37.6 
miles  of  excavated  canal,  (the  total  length  being  38.98  miles,) 
the  dimensions  now  proposed  by  Mr.  Menocal  must  he  enlarged 
one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  to  make  them  as  large  as  those 
decided  upon  for  tlie  Suez  Canal  to  accommodate  a  traffic  ^;^^y 
per  cent,  less  than  that  assumed  to  have  been  provided  for  by 
the  Nicaragua  Canal  plans.  The  average  of  three  sections 
proposed  for  the  Nicaragua  Canal  gives  an  area  of  3,492 
square  feet.  The  paper  read  before  the  Austrian  Society 
gives  the  section  of  the  Suez  Canal  as  3,956  square  feet. 
The  average  of  the  proposed  enlargements  of  the  Suez  Canal 
is  8,576.3  square  feet.  (For  details,  see  the  table  on  sketch, 
page  19.)  As  this  37.6  miles  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  com- 
prises the  most  expensive  part  of  the  work,  it  seems  fair  to 
increase  the  cost  proportionately  if  we  are  to  modify  the  esti- 
mate to  produce  an  adequate  section.  The  estimated  cost  of 
this  part  of  the  work  as  at  present  designed  is  $28,546,542. 
The  cost  of  the  same  on  the  basis  of  the  Suez  Canal  enlarged 
section  is  $42,819,782,  at  Mr.  Menocal's  prices.     If  the  chan- 


26 

nel  in  the  San  Juan  river  and  the  nine  miles  of  excavated 
channel  in  Lake  Nicaragua  are  enlarged  from  125  feet  bot- 
tom width  in  the  first  case,  and  150  feet  in  the  second,  to 
that  of  the  Suez  Canal  enlargement,  which  is  224  feet,  the 
increased  cost  in  the  first  case  will  be  $3,530,453,  and  in  the 
second  case,  1189,760.  To  make  a  harbor  at  Brito  will  cost, 
as  estimated  by  Major  McFarland,  ^55,000,000.  Mr.  Menocal's 
estimate  is  $1,611,500,  or  $3,388,500  less.  As  all  who  have 
examined  it  call  it  a  "  harbor  only  by  courtesy,"  and  as  no 
essential  change  has  occurred  there  in  the  last  twelve  years, 
to  the  writer's  knowledge,  it  is  judicious  to  assume  that  Major 
McFarland's  estimate  is  quite  as  reliable  as  that  of  Mr.  Meno- 
cal.  Summing  up  the  several  additions  to  the  estimate,  and 
adding  25  per  cent,  for  contingencies — which  has  been 
added  by  Mr.  Menocal  to  his  estimate — we  have  a  total  in- 
crease of  $88,960,898.  The  total  estimate  as  given  by  Mr. 
Menocal  is  $64,043,699.  The  total  revised  estimate  is  there- 
fore $153,004,597. 

The  very  expensive  work,  as  it  certainly  will  be  found  to 
be,  of  modifying  the  whole  drainage  system  of  the  Isthmus, 
and  providing  adequate  channels  to  carry  to  the  sea  the  floods 
of  an  annual  rainfall  of  102  inches  without  danger  to  the 
canal,  have  not  been  touched  upon  in  this  review,  for  the  reason 
that  the  topography  of  the  country  and  the  detailed  plans 
and  estimates  are  not  available.  It  should  also  be  noticed 
that  Major  McFarland's  estimate  was  based  on  a  canal  whose 
average  sectional  area  was  2,309  square  feet  only,  while  Mr. 
Menocal's  area  is  3,409.2  square  feet,  about  fifty  per  cent. 
greater  than  Major  McFarland's.  If  we  assume  that  it  would 
require  an  addition  of  40  per  cent,  to  build  the  canal  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  MenocaVs  sections,  the  total  cost,  then,  on  Major 
McFarland's  basis  would  be  $189,500,000,  and,  to  build  it  ac- 
cording to  the  Suez  Canal  enlarged  dimensions  $264,500,000. 

Mr.  Menocal,  who  was  hastily  despatched  to  the  Isthmus 
last  winter  without  authority  from  or  appropriation  by  Con- 
gress, had  a  serious  work  to  accomplish  in  a  very  inadequate 


27 

time.  It  was  actually  necessary  to  design  a  larger  canal  and 
find  a  location  for  it  so  favorable  that  the  cost  would  not  ex- 
ceed the  estimate  of  the  canal  whose  plans  were  then  before 
the  Senate.  How  fully  he  accomplished  this  part  of  his  task 
is  seen  by  placing  the  two  estimates  side  by  side :  The 
estimate  before  the  Senate  was  $65,722,147  ;  the  present 
estimate  is  $64,043,699,  or  $1,678,448  less,  while  the  canal 
is  fifty  per  cent,  larger.  Whether  the  plans  and  estimates 
can  be  made  satisfactory  to  intelligent  men  is  exceedingly 
doubtful.  It  cannot  be  successfully  denied  that  the  section 
now  designed  does  not  give  the  free  and  unrestricted  loater- 
way  that  is  absolutely  necessary  to  make  it  favorably  compare 
with  a  ship  railway  as  a  means  of  transportation,  and  that  it 
does  not  at  all  compare  with  the  adopted  dimensions  of  the 
Suez  Canal  enlargement,  and  does  not  in  any  sense  overcome 
the  very  serious  emhan^assments  under  which  the  Suez  Canal 
labors  at  present. 


PERSONAL  ASSAULT  UPON   MR.  EADS. 

In  an  address  before  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  the  writer  took  occasion  to  refer  to 
the  great  works  accomplished  by  Mr.  Eads,  and  to  speak  of 
his  acknowledged  ability  as  an  engineer. 

This  passage  has  greatly  disturbed  Admiral  Ammen,  and 
he  occupies  six  pages  of  his  pamphlet  in  personal  abuse  of 
Mr.  Eads  and  detractions  of  the  various  important  works 
that  he  has  accomplished.  According  to  the  Admiral  all  of 
these  works  are  failures.  The  14  ironclads  which  he  de- 
signed and  built  with  such  marvellous  celerity  were  but  poor 
affairs  and  rendered  no  real  service  ;  the  bridge  across  the 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis,  pronounced  by  the  British  Encyclo- 
paedia to  be  the  finest  specimen  of  arch  construction  in  the 
world,  is  a  flimsy  structure,  likely  at  any  moment  to  fall  into 
the  stream  ;  and  the  jetties  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 


28 

river  will  soon  be  choked  up  with  sand.  The  motives  which 
prompt  this  personal  attack  upon  Mr.  Eads  are  so  apparent 
as  to  excite  for  their  vindictive  author  a  mingled  feeling  of 
pity  and  regret. 

Not  only  does  Admiral  Amrpen  assail  the  works  of  Mr. 
Eads,  but  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to  attack  his  personal  char- 
acter. That  character  needs  no  defence,  especially  against 
one  who  strives  to  defeat  an  enterprise  of  immense  public 
utility,  by  the  personal  abuse  of  its  projector,  and  the  revival 
of  stale  and  refuted  slanders  against  him. 

To  mislead  the  public  regarding  the  personal  relations  ex- 
isting between  General  Grant  and  Mr.  Eads,  (which  up  to  the 
day  of  General  Grant's  death  were  of  the  most  friendly  char- 
acter,) Admiral  Ammen  publishes  in  his  pamphlet  an  ex- 
tract of  a  letter  written  by  the  General  in  1882,  to  Mr.  Eads, 
in  reference  to  the  Ship  Railway  Bill  then  pending  in  Con- 
gress. This  letter  embodied  several  of  the  misrepresentations 
published  at  the  time  by  the  Admiral  and  Captain  Phelps  to 
defeat  that  bill,  and  was  written  under  the  evident  impression 
that  their  interpretation  of  the  bill  was  correct.  Under  this 
view  he  deemed  it  proper  to  write  to  Mr.  Eads  that  he  should 
oppose  the  bill,  because  he  had  previously  given  him  to 
understand  that  he  would  not  do  so.  At  the  same  time  he 
sent  a  copy  of  this  letter  to  Senator  Miller,  of  California, 
who  had  charge  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  bill,  and  who  was  a 
decided  advocate  of  that  measure.  On  receipt  of  the  letter 
Mr.  Eads  at  once  sent  a  reply  by  the  General's  son,  Mr.  Jesse 
R.  Grant,  pointing  out  to  General  Grant  the  misapprehension 
under  which  he  was  laboring.  Within  two  days  after  the 
date  of  this  reply,  J.  R.  Grant  wrote  and  telegraphed  Mr. 
Eads  that  his  letter  was  satisfactory  ;  that  a  copy  of  it  was 
sent  to  Miller,  and  that  the  General  had  written  to  him, 
Miller,  explaining  the  error  he  had  made.  General  Grant 
therefore  had  sent  the  copy  of  Mr.  Eads'  letter  and  his  own 
admission  of  his  error  to  Senator  Miller  immediately  after 
receipt  of  Mr.  Eads'  letter,  for  the  evident  purpose  of  cor- 


29 

recting  the  wrong  impression  which  his  letter  to  Mr.  Eads 
would  naturally  produce  in  the  mind  of  that  Senator.  Gen- 
eral Grant  soon  after  wrote  to  Mr.  Eads  reassuring  him 
that  he  would  put  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  passage 
of  the  Ship  Kailway  bill.  That  Admiral  Ammen  should  be 
suppHed  with  a  copy  of  General  Grant's  letter  to  Mr.  Eads, 
by  either  Grant  or  Miller,  without  learning  from  one  or  the 
other  anything  about  Mr.  Eads'  reply  to  General  Grant  or 
the  copy  of  it  sent  to  Miller  and  his  subsequent  and  imme- 
diate admission  to  Miller  by  letter  that  he  was  in  error,  is 
simply  incredible.  It  follows  therefore  that  Admiral  Ammen 
has  been  making  a  most  discreditable  use  of  General  Grant's 
letter,  and  one  that  must  be  condemned  by  every  fair  minded 
man  who  will  read  that  letter  and  Mr.  Eads'  reply.  Both  of 
these  will  be  found  in  the  appendix  to  this  review  with 
collateral  facts  relating  to  this  part  of  Ammen's  personal  as- 
sault upon  Mr.  Eads.  His  suppression  of  these  facts  proves 
that  he  is  willing  to  place  his  deceased  friend  and  benefac- 
tor in  a  false  position  before  the  public,  to  gratify  his  hate  of 
Mr.  Eads  for  wrecking  his  pet  scheme  on  which  he  had  doubt- 
less based  his  hopes  of  a  colossal  fortune  and  an  imperish- 
able fame.  One  of  the  noblest  characteristics  of  General 
Grant  was  his  readiness  to  admit  an  error  at  once  when  con- 
vinced that  he  had  made  one.  A  notable  instance  of  this 
manly  virtue  is  shown  by  him  in  this  correspondence,  and  the 
suppression  of  all  reference  to  it  by  Admiral  Ammen  places 
the  characters  of  the  two  men  in  strong  contrast. 

As  Admiral  Ammen  has  chosen  to  criticise  Mr.  Eads'  pro- 
fessional abilities  and  to  ridicule  and  belittle  the  high  expert 
testimony  we  have  adduced  in  favor  of  the  Ship  Railway,  the 
writer  will  be  pardoned  for  answering  the  natural  inquiry : 
"  Upon  what  meat  doth  this  our  Caesar  feed,  that  he  is 
grown  so  great  ?  "  We  find  that  at  the  age  of  41,  when  the 
late  war  broke  out,  he  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy  in  com- 
mand of  the  gunboat  Seneca,  which  he  assures  us  was  not 
fit  to  be  carried  across  the  Isthmus  on  a  carefully  prepared 


30 

railway.  If  he  ever  commanded  a  fleet  for  a  day,  history 
has  failed  to  record  it.  Certain  it  is  that  his  services  during 
the  whole  war  were  not  sufficiently  important  to  secure  his 
promotion  to  a  captaincy.  This  tardy  recognition  of  his 
abilities  came  in  1866.  Tradition  has  it  that  he  had  saved 
Grant  from  drowning  when  they  were  boys  together,  and 
Grant  was  not  made  of  the  stuff  to  forget  such  a  favor. 
When  he  came  into  power  Captain  Ammen  fared  better. 
He  was  furnished  with  a  good  soft  place  as  Chief  of  a  Bu- 
reau in  the  Department,  a  comfortable  salary,  and  the  usual 
rations,  perquisites,  etc.,  and  after  decent  delay  he  was  made, 
in  1872,  a  Commodore,  and  finally,  a  Rear-Admiral. 

With  all  due  respect  to  the  Admiral  the  writer  fails  to  see, 
in  the  record  of  this  officer,  how  he  has  become  fitted  by 
education,  experience,  or  any  notable  success  whatever, 
during  his  whole  official  career,  (except  in  the  way  of  pro- 
motion,) to  make  him  an  authority  on  hydraulic  engineering, 
in  the  science  of  shipbuilding,  or  in  the  construction  of  rail- 
roads and  lifting  docks.  With  about  half  of  his  life  spent  as 
a  midshipman  and  lieutenant  on  shipboard,  and  the  remain- 
der as  a  fixture  in  the  Navy  Department,  he  essays  to  ridi- 
cule and  criticise  the  projector  of  the  Ship  Railway,  and  the 
most  noted  and  successful  experts  in  these  various  depart- 
ments of  civil  engineering  who  gave  their  hearty  endorsement 
to  the  Ship  Railway. 

The  Admiral  and  his  coadjutors  place  much  stress  on  the 
fact  that  we  have  adduced  no  evidence  from  underwriters 
that  they  will  insure  a  ship  in  transit  on  a  ship  railway. 
They  forget  that  the  railway  company  will  be  a  cor)%'mon  car- 
rier, and  wiU  therefore  be  responsible  for  the  safe  delivery 
of  every  package  (that  is,  each  ship)  it  receives  at  one  end 
of  the  line  until  it  is  delivered  in  good  condition  at  the  other 
end.  Hence  the  insurance  companies,  during  this  part 
of  the  voyage,  are  reheved  of  all  risk,  (except  perhaps  that 
of  fire,)  and  a  company  with  a  capital  as  big  as  twenty  or 
more  insurance  companies  becomes  responsible  for  each  ves- 
sel after  it  undertakes  to  transport  it  on  its  railway. 


31 

MR.  MENOCAL'S  want  OF  KNOWLEDGE  AS  TO  TEHUANTEPEC. 

The  letter  of  Engineer  Menocal  incorporated  in  the  pam- 
phlet of  Admiral  Ammen  shows  such  a  lamentable  want  of 
knowledge  of  the  Tehuantepec  Isthmus  and  the  Ship  Eailway 
location  and  plans,  that  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  weary  the 
reader  by  the  many  flat  denials  needed  to  correct  his  misstate- 
ments. The  most  important  of  them  we  will,  however,  take 
up  briefly.  The  larger  part  of  his  letter  is  based  on  the 
assumption,  which  we  have  already  shown  to  be  false,  that 
there  is  "  nothing  but  assertions  and  generalities  to  deal 
with  "  in  reference  to  the  natural  conditions  existing  on  the 
Isthmus. 

CONTROVERTING   STATEMENT   OF   MR.    MARTIN   VAN    BROCKLIN. 


A  recent  letter  of  Mr.  Van  Brocklin,  taking  issue  with  Ad- 
miral Ammen  and  Mr.  Menocal  in  reference  to  the  statements 
made  by  them,  will  confirm  whatever  the  writer  has  said  in 
reference  to  the  favorable  conditions  existing  at  Tehuantepec 
for  the  construction  of  a  ship  railway. 

"  Oneida,  N.  Y.,  FeVy  26,  1886. 
"  E.  L.  CoRTHELL,  Esq.  : 

"  Dear  Sir:  I  have  read  the  pamphlet  entitled  The  '  Certainty  of  the 
Nicaragua  Canal,  contrasted  with  the  Uncertainties  of  the  Eads  Ship  Rail- 
way,' by  Daniel  Ammen. 

"  The  first  thing  presented  is  a  profile  said  to  be  from  Barnard's  survey. 
My  knowledge  of  the  topographical  features  of  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuante- 
pec, gained  in  making  surveys  at  intervals  from  1859  ^o  1883,  enables  me 
to  say  that  a  line  cati  be  traced  across  that  Isthm,us  that  will  give  a  profile 
as  irregular  in  surface  as  the  one  furnished,  and  further,  that  should  it  suit 
the  purpose  of  a  supposed  investigator,  a  line  showing  greater  irregularity 
of  surface  can,  I  think,  be  obtained.  What  a  profile  of  the  line  surveyed 
by  Barnard  has  to  do  with  the  line  located  for  the  Ship  Railway  is  incon- 
ceivable. It  seems  incredible  that  a  person  of  the  prominence  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Ammen  would  undertake  to  seriously  discuss  so  important  a  prob- 
lem as  the  practicability  of  the  construction  of  a  railway  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  ships  across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  while  so  lamentably 


32 

ignorant  of  the  physical  conditions  existing  on  the  line  located  for  it,  and 
of  the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  in  its  construction,  as  the  pamphlet 
demonstrates  him  to  be.  He  should  have  known  that  jou  had  a  complete 
detailed  survey  of  the  route  including  surveys  for  the  improvement  of  the 
harbor  on  each  side,  (see  page  i8  of  the  publication  of  yours  he  quotes,) 
and  a  profile  of  the  line  indicated,  giving  full  details  of  the  work  to  be 
done,  and  yet  for  a  purpose  best  known  to  himself  he  presents  data  obtained 
from  Barnard's  survey  made  in  1851,  in  another  locality,  and  for  an  entirely 
different  purpose,  and  also  from  a  preliminary  examination,  by  Mr.  Garay, 
of  a  pass  through  the  main  divide,  10  miles  distant  from  the  line  finally 
selected. 

"  The  '  forty  miles  of  swamp-land,  more  or  less,  from  Minatitlan  towards 
the  Pacific,'  that  forms  the  basis  for  his  argument  of  the  '  Farmer,'  and  the 
'  Marine  ram,'  is  a  fiction,  so  far  as  its  application  to  the  Ship  Railway  is 
concerned ;  it  describes  no  part  of  the  ground  upon  which  that  work  will 
be  built.  At  every  place  on  the  line  of  the  Railway,  from  the  river  bank 
at  Minatitlan  to  the  harbor  on  the  Pacific  side,  the  Railway  will  rest  upon 
firm,  unyielding  material,  possessingample  resistance  to  sustain  any  weight 
that  will  be  placed  upon  it.  There  is  an  aggregate  distance  of  perhaps 
eight  miles,  but  dispersed  in  sections  over  the  first  thirty  miles  from  Mina- 
titlan, where  the  surface  is  covered  with  water  during  freshets  in  the 
Coatzacoalcos  river,  but  these  places  cannot  be  called  '  swamp-land,'  as  the 
material  is  a  firm  tenacious  clay,  and  where  not  covered  by  a  dense  under- 
growth, they  afford  valuable  grazing  ground  for  the  large  herds  of  cattle 
found  in  that  locality. 

"In  the  appended  letter  from  Mr.  Menocal  it  is  demonstrated,  evidently 
to  his  own  satisfaction,  that  a  vessel  300  feet  long,  and  having  a  draught  of 
22  feet,  will  be  exposed  to  an  overturning  moment  of  4,000  foot  tons,  from 
the  force  of  winds  alleged  to  be  prevalent  at  Tarifa  during  certain  seasons. 
The  authority  quoted  in  the  pamphlet  shows  conclusively  why  such  winds 
as  do  cross  the  Isthmus  are  confined  to  a  given  direction  ;  the  same  reasons 
give  a  similar  direction  to  the  railway,  and  just  how  Mr.  Menocal  is  to  ap- 
ply the  force  of  the  wind  to  the  side  of  the  vessel  is  not  apparent.  Evi- 
dently the  people  living  at  Tarifa  are  unmindful  of  the  dangers  to  which 
they  are  exposed,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Menocal's  figures. 

"  The  buildings  of  the  hacienda  of  Tarifa  stand  in  the  open  plain,  and 
are  exposed  to  the  full  strength  of  such  winds  as  cross  the  Isthmus  at  that 
place.  These  buildings  are  covered  with  palm,  and  are,  most  of  them,  of 
very  frail  construction.  The  roofs  are  usually  much  larger  than  the  walls 
of  the  house  under  them,  extending  far  enough  to  give  a  broad  veranda  on 
each  side.  The  theoretical  wind  of  Menocal  would  demolish  such  frail 
structures.  The  fact  that  they  stand  uninjured,  at  Tarifa,  and  at  all  places 
on  the  Isthmus  as  well,  is  evidence  that  the  actual  force  exerted  by  winds 
will  not  be  a  serious  obstacle  in  the  operation  of  the  Ship  Railway. 

"  Very  truly, 

"M.  VAN  BROCKLIN." 


83 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Deming  J.  Thayer,  a  civil 
engineer  of  large  experience,  furnishes  additional  confirma- 
tion of  the  thoroughness  of  the  surveys  for  the  Ship  Kailway 
and  of  the  favorable  conditions  existing  at  the  Tehuantepec 
Isthmus. 

"  Newton.  Kansas,  March  6,  i8S6. 
"  E.  L.  CoRTHELL,  Esq., 

"  Ch'f  Engr.  Tehuantefec  Ship  Ry.,   Washington,  D.  C: 

"  Dear  Sir:  Rear- Admiral  Ammen  and  Senor  Menocal  show,  in  their 
writings  contained  in  the  pamphlet  recently  published  by  the  former,  en- 
titled, "  Certainties  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  Contrasted  with  the  Uncer- 
tainties of  the  Eads  Ship  Railway,"  a  deplorable  ignorance  of  the  work 
done  and  results  obtained  by  the  engineers  in  the  employ  of  the  Ship  Rail- 
way Company.  The  following  corrections  of  some  of  their  errors  and  in- 
formation for  '  seekers  after  truth,'  I  take  pleasure  in  placing  in  your 
hands. 

"  From  March,  1883,  to  July,  1884,  from  five  to  seven  engineering  parties 
fully  equipped  for  the  work  they  were  to  undertake  were  constantly  in  the 
field  between  Coatzacoalcos  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  first  six  months 
in  charge  of  Mr.  Martin  Van  Brocklin,  resident  engineer,  and  the  latter 
months  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  writer. 

"  We  surveyed  in  an  exceptionally  thorough  manner  a  continuous  line 
from  Minatitlan  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  at  Salina  Cruz,  that  had  no  marsh  or 
svjamp-land  on  any  part  of  it,  no  grade  exceeding  52.8  feet  per  mile,  or  a 
curve  of  less  than  twenty  miles  radius. 

"  Later,  we  made  lateral  explorations,  and  exhausted  practically  the  pos- 
sibilities for  improving  the  line,  and  obtained,  as  a  result,  the  present 
location.  Our  lines  were  traced  with  the  greatest  care,  check  levels  were 
run  over  the  entire  rout«u  and  especial  attention  was  given  to  the  extensive 
lateral  topographical  lines  locating  all  streams  and  ridges  of  any  promi- 
nence in  the  section  of  the  Isthmus  where  any  possibility  existed  of  its 
being  desired  to  trace  a  survey  later.  Maps,  profiles,  and  reports  of  the 
work  done,  duly  revised  and  certified  to  by  the  engineers  in  charge,  were 
sent  to  you  as  frequently  as  possible,  and  I  presume  are  in  your  possession 
at  present  for  the  information  of  '  seekers  after  truth '  as  j^vell  as  for  the 
needs  of  the  Company. 

"  The  hydrographic  work  accomplished  was  important.  The  Coatza- 
colcos  river  had  its  banks  carefully  located  by  transit  lines  from  the  in- 
itial point  of  the  railway  line  above  Minatitlan  to  the  mouth  of  the  river ; 
and  a  detailed  survey  was  made  of  the  bed  of  the  river.  A  large  force  of 
men  was  employed  several  weeks  in  this  work  alone. 

"  On  the  Pacific  coast,  the  Upper  and  Lower  Lagoons  were  thoroughly 
sounded,  not  as  on  previous  occasions  on  given    lines  and  at  stated  inter- 


34 

vals,  but  extensively,  and  each  sounding  located  from  angles  from  carefully 
measured  base  lines  on  their  shores. 

"  Borings  were  made  to  ascertain  the  material  forming  the  bottom  of  the 
Lagoon  in  all  important  localities.  In  the  Lower  Lagoon,  in  a  previously 
unexplored  portion  we  discovered  a  basin  only  separated  from  the  ocean 
by  a  sand-spit  a  couple  of  miles  wide,  which  was  two  miles  in  diameter 
and  had  a  uniform  minimum  depth  of  22  feet,  with  a  clean  sand  bottom. 
This  basin  is  protected  on  the  north  by  a  rugged  spur  of  mountains  and  is 
entirely  land-locked;  it  will  make,  with  little  relative  expense,  one  of  the 
finest  harbors  in  the  world. 

"  Maps  of  all  these  surveys,  as  well  as  of  the  harbors  of  Salina  Cruz  and 
Bar  of  Coatzacoalcos  are  in  your  possession. 

"  In  regard  to  'marshy  and  swampy'  ground,  which  our  cited  pamphlet 
lays  such  stress  upon  as  covering  a  great  portion  of  our  line,  let  me  say 
that  in  the  lower  Coatzacoalcos  Valley,  near  Minatitlan,  in  the  most  un- 
favorable localities  we  could  select,  soundings  with  an  apparatus  made  of 
gas  pipe  with  a  steel  point  to  be  driven  down  with  blows  showed  that 
there  exists  everywhere,  as  a  foundation  for  masonry,  near  the  surface  of 
the  ground  impenetrable  strata  of  sand,  gravel,  or  hard-pan  ;  there  was  no 
exception  to  this  rule;  the  upper  over  lying  soil  was  a  stiff  clayey  alluvion 
entirely  suitable  for  the  foundation  of  embankments. 

"  The  force  and  effect  of  the  '  northers,'  in  my  opinion  has  been  greatlj' 
exaggerated  ;  they  blow  steadily,  are  not  shifty,  nor  do  they  blow  in  gusts- 
There  exist  in  no  part  of  the  world  more  flimsy  structures  than  the  country 
houses  on  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  and  they  are  loosely  thatched  with 
palm  leaf  or  grass  thatch. 

"  I  have  never  seen  one  blown  down,  or  its  roof  blown  off  or  damaged 
in  any  way  by  a  '  norther.'  I  have  stood  on  a  bare  mountain  summit  on 
the  divide  near  Tarifa  and  faced  the  whole  force  of  one  of  the  strongest 
winds  of  this  kind  ever  known  there.  I  could  not  have  stood  up  in  it  had 
its  force  been  any  where  near  40  lbs.  to  the  square  foot,  (over  90  miles  an 
hour,)  as  Senor  Menocal  estimates.  It  would  have  blown  me  to  the  plains 
a  thousand  feet  below. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"  D.  J.  THAYER." 

Mr.  Menocal  has  given  reports  from  the  statements  of  three 
prominent  jengineers,  one  of  them,  Mr.  Garay,  a  prominent 
Mexican  engineer — 

"  Who  located  the  line  for  the  road  across  the?Jmountain  ridges  for  a 
distance  of  forty  miles."  *  *  *  "  The  line  run  by  him  crosses  the 
range  of  mountains,  the  deepest  proposed  cutting  being  312  feet.  He  adds 
that  in  all  the  line  there  is  no  grade  greater  than  two  per  cent.,  and  for  no 
greater  distance  than  two  and  a  half  miles." 


35 

(See  page  24  of  Admiral  Ammen's  pamphlet.)  The  line  sur- 
veyed by  Mr.  Garay  is  not  the  "  located  "  line  of  the  railway. 
It  was  a  preliminary  or  trial  line,  surveyed  to  ascertain  if  an 
economical  line  with  low  grades  could  be  obtained  through 
the  Chivela  Pass.  The  located  line  runs  through  the  Tarifa 
Pass,  10  imles  distant.  Mr.  Menocal  states  that  Mr.  Fuertes, 
who  was  the  engineer  on  the  survey  of  the  Ship  Canal  route 
under  Admiral  Shufelctt,  confirms  this  statement  of  Mr.  Garay 
by  his  report  on  the  Ship  Canal.  The  reader  will  see  how 
entirely  unfair  is  a  comparison  of  a  ship  canal  route  mth  a 
ship  railway  route.  Professor  Fuertes  himself  has  made  a 
statement  in  regard  to  the  practicability  of  building  a  ship 
railway  across  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  based  upon  his 
own  observations  there,  and  from  this  statement  the  follow- 
ing quotation  is  made : 

"  I  can  assure  you,  upon  knowledge  of  every  inch  of  the  ground,  that 
you  will  find  no  difficulty  about  curves,  grades,  or  bridges.  The  ascent  of 
the  Atlantic  slope  will  offer  no  more  difficulties  than  the  Hudson  River  R. 
R.;  and,  on  the  Pacific  side,  either  one  of  the  three  passes  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Tarifa  or  Chivela  will  require  no  steeper  grade  than  25  to  35  feet  per 
mile,  to  bring  you  down  to  the  Pacific  plains." 

The  above  is  quoted  from  testimony  given  to  Congress  three 
years  ago,  and  which  Mr.  Menocal  has  knowledge  of. 

Mr.  Menocal  refers  also  to  another  engineer,  Mr.  William 
J.  Mac  Alpine,  who  says  : 

"  I  have  described  from  personal  surveys  the  route  which  his  (Eads') 
engineer  has  selected,  and  have  spoken  of  the  enormous  cost  and  difficulty 
of  carrying  his  railway  across  the  deep  swamps  of  one-half,  at  least,  of  the 
first  sixty  miles  from  near  Minatitlan,  of  the  south  descent  of  the  Sierra 
Madre  slope,  (500  feet  in  four  miles.)" 

Mr.  MacAlpine  had  no  knowledge  of  the  line  selected.  It 
had  not  been  surveyed  at  that  time.  His  remarks  refer  to 
the  line  run  by  Mr.  Garay,  already  alluded  to. 

Mr.  Menocal  makes  several  misstatements  in  describing 
the  mechanical  appliances  of  the  Ship  Railway.  He  states 
that  "the   construction   and   operation  of  cradles  weighing 


36 

1,000  tons  or  more,  coraposed  of  an  infinite  number  of  parts, 
eacli  of  which  must  be  accurately  adjusted  to  sustain  its  part 
of  the  load,  with  pumps,  engines,  and  rams."  Mr.  Menocal 
does  not  understand  at  all  the  plans  he  is  criticising.  The 
cradle  will  be  a  remarkably  simple  structure,  composed 
of  duplicated  parts,  which  do  not  require  adjustment, 
and  there  are  not  to  he  on,  or  in,  the  cradle  any  pumps,  en- 
gines, or  rams.     They  are  fixtures  in  the  dock. 


INACCURATE   STATEMENT  OF  MENOCAL  ABOUT  OTHER  SHIP  CANALS. 

Mr.  Menocal  attempts  to  prove  that  the  tendency  toward 
larger  canals  and  greater  loads  exists  upon  canals  as  well  as 
upon  raihvays.  This  no  doubt,  in  a  measure,  is  true,  as  it  is 
one  of  the  necessities  of  the  times,  but  enlargements  and  im- 
provements to  meet  the  requirements  of  traffic  are  very  dim^ 
cult  and  expensive  upon  canals,  and  rarely  made.     He  states  : 

"Are  not  the  Caledonia,  the  Amsterdam,  the  Languedoc,  the  Welland, 
the  St.  Mary's  Falls,  the  Suez,  and  many  other  canals  now  in  successful 
operation,  and  being  constantly  enlarged  and  improved  to  meet  the  rapidly 
increasing  traffic,  and  those  under  construction  or  about  to  be  constructed 
at  Panama,  Manchester,  Cape  Cod,  Corinth,  Baltic,  &c.,  improvements  on 
the  canals  referred  to  by  Mr.  Corthell?" 

This  statement  presents  a  strong  array  of  what  the  reader 
would  naturally  suppose  were  all  large  modern  ship  canals, 
or  being  constantly  enlarged,  and  with  capacious  channels. 
The  facts  are  these  :  The  natural  features  of  the  country 
along  the  line  of  the  Caledonia  Canal  across  Scotland  are 
quite  similar  to  those  existing  at  Nicaragua.  Its  summit  is 
100  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  It  is  60  miles  long,  38 
miles  being  through  lakes.  It  was  built  early  in  this  cen- 
tury, before  the  era  of  railroads,  and  has  a  capacity  for  ves- 
sels of  only  300  tons.  Mr.  Vernon-Harcourt,  in  his  book  on 
canals,  states  :  "  Regarded  merely  as  an  engineering  work, 
the  canal  was  a  bold  and  successful  undertaking,  very  judi- 


37 

ciously  planned  and  successfully  carried  out ;  but  it  has  not 
proved  a  commercial  success." 

The  Amsterdam  Canal,  if  Mr.  Menocal  refers  to  the  new 
canal,  is  a  short  deep  channel  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  the 
Zuider  Zee,  and  has  but  one  lock  in  its  length  of  15t^  miles, 
and  was  excavated  through  lands  reclaimed  from  the  sea.  It 
was  an  absolute  necessity  to  Amsterdam.  The  Languedoc  is 
an  ordinary  Barge  Canal,  and  not  a  Ship  Canal,  extending 
from  the  Bay  of  Biscay  across  France  to  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  It  was  built  in  1667,  is  171  miles  long,  and  has  a  depth 
of  only  5  feet  and  3  inches.  It  has  not  been  enlarged,  and  is 
of  merely  local  value.  The  Welland  Canal,  although  in- 
tended to  be  of  sufficient  depth  to  accommodate  the  traffic  of 
the  great  lakes,  and  take  the  grain  to  Montreal,  has  been 
found  to  be  entirely  inadequate,  as  there  is  a  depth  of  only 
14  feet  in  the  locks.  This  mistake  is  almost  irreparable,  and 
an  adequate  enlargement  cannot  be  made,  except  at  great 
expense. 

In  reference  to  the  Suez,  once  more,  which  is  by  far  the 
most  important  ship  canal  in  the  world,  the  expense  of  deep- 
ening and  widening  it  for  even  its  present  navigation  is  esti- 
mated at  200,000,000  francs,  or  $40,000,000,  by  the  distin- 
guished International  Commission.  This  estimate  is  the 
same  as  that  given  by  a  former  International  Commission  for 
the  original  construction  of  this  canal. 

The  Manchester  Ship  Catial,  although  approved  by  Parlia- 
ment, has  not  yet  been  commenced.  The  Cape  Cod  Canal 
has  been  in  embryo  for  219  years,  and  has  been  scarcely 
commenced,  work  upon  it  being  now  suspended.  The  Corinth 
Canal  is  almost  over  the  same  ground  where  the  Athenians, 
550  years  B.  C,  built  the  "  Dioclus,"  a  veritable  ship  railway 
of  polished  granite,  which  they  operated  for  300  years.  Had 
the  Greek  of  the  present  day  the  skill  and  energy  of  the 
ancient  Athenian,  his  great  ancestor,  he  would  have  con- 
structed a  neio  and  iniproved>  ship  railway,  instead  of  digging 
a  ditch.     The  Baltic  Canal,  also  alluded  to  by  Mr.  Menocal, 


38 

has  not  hem  decided  upon,  and  recent  information  shows  that 
it  has  only  just  been  presented  for  the  consideration  of  the 
Reichstag.  This  short  paragraph,  therefore,  of  Mr.  Menocal 
in  reference  to  these  important  ship  canals  needs  to  be  sup- 
plemented by  these  facts  to  show  how  little  weight  it  pos- 
sesses. 

CAPACITY  OF  THE  SHIP  RAILWAY. 


The  ultimate  capacity  of  the  Ship  Railway  is  practically 
unlimited.  It  is  the  intention  of  its  projectors  to  construct 
it  at  the  outset  for  vessels  weighing  with  their  cargoes  7,000 
tons.  There  are  less  than  a  dozen  steamers  registered  under 
the  American  flag  that  have  a  greater  load  displacement  than 
6,000,  and  there  are  no  sailing  vessels  of  greater  weight. 
There  are  no  war  vessels,  either  now  in  the  service  or  con- 
templated, whose  weight  with  armament,  coal,  and  supplies 
on  board,  will  exceed  6,000  tons. 

The  bill  now  before  Congress  requires  the  transportation 
of  vessels,  weighing  with  their  cargoes  at  least  6,000  tons,  as 
a  test  of  its  practicability,  and  7,000  tons  after  the  first 
year.  This,  however,  does  not  represent  its  full  capacity  after 
the  roadway  has  become  well  compacted  and  settled.  It  is 
also  the  intention  to  so  prepare  the  foundations  and  excava- 
tions that  the  railway  may  at  any  time  be  enlarged  to  trans- 
port still  larger  vessels,  when  commerce  demands  it. 

One  great  advantage  of  the  railway  over  the  canal  lies  in 
the  fact  that  it  can  be  easily  and  inexpensively  enlarged  for 
an  increasing  traffic  and  tonnage  without  interruption  to  its 
regular  business. 

The  facts  stated  publicly  by  the  writer  during  the  last  two 
years  going  to  show  the  marked  superiority  of  railroads  over 
canals,  and  ship  railways  over  ship  canals,  have  not  been  re- 
futed. These  facts  are  drawn  from  the  history  of  transporta- 
tion in  various  countries  during  the  last  sixty  years. 


39 

From  the  discussion  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  in  the  preced- 
ing pages  it  has  been  seen  that  the  disadvantages  of  the  ordi- 
nary barge  canal  exist  in  a  still  greater  degree  with  such  a 
ship  canal  as  has  been  proposed  for  Nicaragua.  The  advan- 
tages, however,  of  the  ordinary  railway  are  greatly  enhanced 
in  the  ship  railway.  These  increased  advantages  arise  from 
the  following  conditions  :  the  rails  are  straight,  the  track  per- 
fect, the  grades  light,  larger  loads  are  carried,  the  ratio  of 
paying  to  non-paying  loads  is  greater,  the  frictional  resistance 
to  the  motive  power  is  reduced,  the  speed  is  slower  and  less 
destructive  both  to  the  track  and  the  rolling-stock.  One  of 
the  most  important  advantages  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  will  not 
be  necessary  to  handle  the  goods.  This  is  one  great  source 
of  the  expense  of  operating  ordinary  railways,  and  it  is  gen- 
erally considered  that  it  costs  as  much  to  handle  a  ton  of 
freight  as  it  does  to  transport  it  100  miles.  The  immense 
clerical  force  employed  on  ordinary  railroads  will  be  almost 
entirely  dispensed  with  on  the  Ship  Kailway. 

Comparing  the  Ship  Railway  with  the  Nicaragua  Canal, 
the  following  are  the  advantages  of  the  former.  The  road- 
bed of  the  railway  is  above  the  neater  and  is  not  subject  to 
the  effects  of  the  dangerous  floods,  or  the  immense  slides 
from  excavations ;  the  road-bed  to  be  maintained  is  of 
much  less  width  than  the  prism  of  the  canal,  and  the  material 
required  is  handled  with  less  expense.  The  enormous  ex- 
pense of  maintaining  a  ship  canal  on  the  American  Isthmus 
is  evidenced  by  the  estimate  of  Mr.  De  Lesseps,  that  it  will 
cost  $7,000,000  per  annum  to  maintain  the  Panama  Canal. 
The  cost  of  towing  vessels  or  propelling  steamers  through 
the  canal  is  considerably  greater  than  their  transportation 
on  the  railway. 

THE  SUPERIOR  ADVANTAGES  OF  THE  TEHUANTEPEC  ROUTE. 

The  distance  in  an  air-line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Coatza- 
coalcos  river,  the  terminus  of  the  Ship  Railway,  to  Grey- 


40 

town,  the  terminus  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  is  as  great  as  the 
distance  from  the  moxith  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  to  New 
Orleans,  or  from  New  York  to  Jacksonville,  Florida,  or  St. 
Louis,  or  Cape  Breton.  These  comparative  distances  show 
how  immensely  superior  is  the  location  of  the  Ship  Kailway 
to  that  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  especially  between  all  our 
Gulf  and  Pacific  ports,  as  this  distance  of  800  miles  must  be 
nearly  doubled.  This  distance  and  the  time  required,  added 
to  the  long  time  required  to  pass  through  the  Nicaragua 
Canal,  shows  the  immense  advantage  of  the  railway  in  these 
respects. 

Another  advantage,  not  to  be  lightly  considered,  is  the  de- 
fensibility  of  the  Tehuantepec  route.  Both  harbors  are  land- 
locked ;  both  are  easily  capable  of  defence  by  fortifications  ; 
both  can  be  reached  quickly  by  railroads  traversing  the  Ke- 
public  of  Mexico  ;  the  straits  of  Yucatan  and  Florida  can  be 
easily  defended  by  our  Navy,  and  we  may  depend  upon 
the  assistance  of  the  strong  neighboring  republic  in  whose 
territory  the  Shij^  Railway  Hes,  and  we  may  also  rely  upon 
her  encouragement  and  assistance  in  promoting  in  every 
possible  way  this  interoceanic  transit-way. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


GENEEAL  U.  S.  GRANT  AND  ME.  JAS.  B.  EADS, 


REVIEW  OF  THE  SAME  BY  MR.  EADS, 

SHOWING  THE  PERVERSION   AND    UNWARRANTED   USE  OF    THE  CORRESPOND- 
ENCE BY   ADMIRAL   AMMEN. 


See  Page  29. 


[F'rom  the  New  York  Herald,  March  3th,  1 886.1 

Mexican  Southern  Railroad  Company, 

New  York,  Jan.  13,  18S2. 
Captain  J.  B.  Eads,   Washington.,  D.  C: 

Dear  Captain  :  Until  I  met  you  in  the  city  of  Mexico  and  had  conver- 
sations with  you  there,  and  subsequently,  on  the  subject  of  your  Inter- 
oceanic  Ship  Railroad  and  read  some  of  your  pamphlets  upon  the  subject,  I 
had  thought  that  I  saw  insurmountable  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  success 
of  your  enterprise.  You  so  far  removed  my  doubts  about  the  practi- 
cability of  carrying  ships  with  cargoes  securely  by  rail,  that,  while  I  was 
not  sanguine  that  it  would  prove  a  success,  I  yet  was  not  prepared  to  say 
that  it  might  not  be. 

I  am  of  that  opinion  still,  but  at  the  same  time  you  gave  me  to  under- 
stand that  no  guarantee  was  to  be  asked  from  the  Government  until  a 
section  of  ten  miles  of  the  railroad  was  built,  and  had  carried  a  vessel  of 
the  capacity  of  2,000  tons  burden  to  the  terminus  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles 
an  hour  and  returned  at  the  same  rate  of  speed,  and  had  landed  the  vessel 
safely  in  water,  when  the  Government  was  to  guarantee  three  per  cent, 
interest  upon  $5,000,000.  Upon  the  completion  of  a  second  ten  miles  of 
the  railroad  a  vessel  of  2,500  tons  burden,  with  her  cargo,  was  to  be  trans- 
ported to  the  terminus  at  the  rate  often  miles  an  hour,  and  again  returned 
to  the  water  at  like  speed,  without  injury,  when  a  second  instalment  of 
$5,000,000  of  bonds  were  to  be  guaranteed  for  a  like  interest  and  on  the 
same  conditions.  At  the  completion  of  each  section  for  ten  miles  the  like 
test  was  to  be  applied  with  vessels,  increasing  500  tons  with  each  section, 


42 

until  one  with  her  cargo  of  4,ocx)  tons  should  be  transported  to  the  termi- 
nus of  the  road  and  into  the  water;  and  on  completion  and  the  success 
of  each  section  of  ten  miles  the  like  interest  on  $5,000,000  of  bonds  were 
to  be  guaranteed  by  the  Government  until  the  whole  amount  should  reach 
$50,000,000. 

I  have  felt  a  very  great  interest  in  the  matter  of  communication  between 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans  somewhere  in  North  America,  and  which 
should  be  mainly  under  the  control  of  the  United  States  Government  and 
United  States  capital.  To  that  end,  with  the  valuable  aid  of  Admiral 
Ammen,  I  had  succeeded  in  having  all  of  the  well  known  lines  of  low- 
level  between  the  United  States  of  Columbia  in  South  America  and' 
Tehuantepec  surveyed,  and  had  submitted  the  result  of  the  surveys  to  a 
board  of  engineers,  which  I  convened.  That  board,  on  an  examination 
of  these  various  reports,  reported  that  no  other  route  was  practicable  for 
a  ship  canal  as  compared  with  the  Nicaragua  route.  From  that  time  on  I 
became  interested  in  seeing  that  work  undertaken  by  an  American  com- 
pany', not  caring  who  it  was  done  by  so  that  it  was  done,  but  willing  to 
lend  my  name  to  the  enterprise  because  there  is  no  problem  whatever  as 
to  the  practicability  of  the  route  and  no  difficulty  in  doing  the  work  if  the 
capital  can  be  secured  for  it. 

But  your  proposed  work  accomplishing  the  object  which  I  had  in  view, 
and  seeming  to  have  followers  who  might  be  willing  to  furnish  the  neces- 
sary capital,  I  was  induced  on  your  statements  to  say  to  Admiral  Ammen 
and  to  Captain  Phelps  that  with  money  appropriated  for  the  De  Lesseps 
canal,  by  the  way  of  Panama,  and  the  following  you  had  for  your  road, 
it  was  idle  for  us  to  try  to  enlist  capital  in  a  third  enterprise  of  this  kind, 
and  as  you  asked  nothing  from  the  government  more  than  a  guarantee 
that  your  road  earned  three  per  cent,  upon  fifty  millions  of  capital,  if  it 
could  carry  vessels  of  4,000  tons  burden  successfully  from  ocean  to  ocean 
and  without  injury  to  the  ships,  I  thought  the  Government  was  running 
no  risk  whatever,  and  advised  that  we  should  let  the  matter  drop  until 
either  the  two  enterprises  under  construction  and  in  contemplation  were 
exploded  or  proved  a  success.  If  yours  should  prove  a  success  the  Nicar- 
agua Canal  would  not  be  wanted  at  all,  at  least  not  in  the  near  future. 

But  I  now  have  your  bill — No.  430— before  me,  and  see  that  its  provisions 
are  so  entirely  at  variance  from  what  I  had  been  led  to  suppose  you  in- 
tended to  ask  that  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  notify  you  that  I  shall  oppose  it  in 
its  present  form  with  all  my  ability.  I  do  this  because  I  feel  that  I  have 
been  deceived  as  to  what  you  intended  to  ask,  and  also  believe  that  if  your 
present  bill  passes  the  Government  will  be  made  responsible  for  six  per 
cent,  interest  upon  a  large  bonded  indebtedness  even  if  your  enterprise 
should  prove  a  total  failure. 

In  the  first  instance  the  speed  with  which  vessels  were  to  be  safely  trans- 
ported is  changed  by  this  bill  from  ten  miles  to  six  miles  an  hour;  the 
rate  of  interest  upon  the  bonds  guaranteed  is  changed  from  three  per  cent, 
per  annum  to  three  per  cent,  semi-annually;  the  vessels  transported  of  the 


4:3 

named  tonnage  are  to  be  vessels  with  their  cargoes  weighing  the  amount 
of  what  I  supposed  was  to  be  the  tonnage  of  the  vessels.  I  do  not  think 
the  change  of  ten  miles  to  six  per  hovir,  or  even  to  four,  a  serious  objection  ; 
but  the  change  in  the  class  of  vessels  transported  and  in  the  rate  of  inter- 
est asked  are  very  serious  changes. 

Then,  also,  in  your  bill  you  provide  what  I  would  approve  of  for  using 
rivers  and  canals  as  far  as  it  was  practicable  to  do  so,  and  to  shorten  the 
line  of  railroad  simply  to  what  would  be  necessary  to  get  over  the  elevation 
dividing  the  two  oceans.  An  examination  of  the  map  shows  that  by  deepen- 
ing the  mouth  of  the  Coatzacoalcos  river  six  feet  you  have  a  navigable  river 
for  all  the  vessels  you  propose  to  carry  for  thirty  miles.  From  thence  to 
the  foothills,  through  a  flat  and  marshy  country  where  the  amount  of  ex- 
cavation will  be  a  minimum,  you  will  have  a  still  greater  distance  where  a 
canal  can  be  cheaply  constructed.  In  like  manner  on  the  Pacific  side,  with 
a  little  deepening  at  the  mouth  of  a  slough  or  small  lagoon,  connecting 
with  the  Pacific,  and  by  deepening  between  that  and  another  lagoon  inland, 
and  a  canal  through  a  flat  and  low  country  to  the  foothills,  in  all  a  distance 
of  twenty  to  thirty  miles  or  more,  ships  of  the  classes  you  propose  to  carry 
can  easily  be  transported.  All  this  leaves  the  extent  of  ship  railroad  to  be 
built  probably  less  than  one-fourth  of  the  entire  distance  across  from  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Pacific  ocean. 

Your  bill  provides  that  the  same  subsidy  shall  be  guaranteed  for  water 
communication  that  is  allowed  to  the  railroads,  and  the  same  rate  of  speed, 
viz.,  six  miles  an  hour,  is  not  mandatory  in  the  canal. 

This  would  give  you,  by  the  terms  of  this  bill,  a  guarantee  of  $5,000,000 
for  the  first  ten  miles,  which  would  be  river  navigation  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  a  like  sum  for  the  first  ten  miles  from  the  Pacific  coast,  like- 
wise of  water  navigation,  nearly  completed  by  nature. 

The  balance  of  the  route  is  to  be  divided  up  into  twenty  sections  of  equal 
length.  Whenever  any  one  pf  them  is  completed  on  either  side  bonds  to 
the  extent  of  $2,000,000  are  to  be  guaranteed  for  each  section  as  completed. 

All  this  would  insure  to  you  or  to  the  company  that  you  represent  a 
guarantee  of  from  thirty  to  forty  millions  before  it  would  be  necessary  to 
enter  upon  that  portion  of  the  work  which  is  in  any  degree  problematical — 
viz.,  the  ship  railroad.  The  Government  is  bound  to  provide  for  this  six 
per  cent,  interest,  whether  the  railway  and  canal  earn  it  or  not,  for  fifteen 
years  after  the  completion  of  the  road. 

Now  it  looks  to  me  very  much  as  if  that  portion  of  the  work  about  which 
thei-e  can  be  no  difiiculty  might  be  completed,  these  thirty  to  forty  millions 
of  guaranteed  bonds  secured  and  the  work  stop  entirely,  and  as  it  never 
would  be  completed,  there  would  be  a  six  per  cent,  irredeemable  bond  for 
which  the  Government  would  be  responsible  for  the  interest  fastened  upon  it. 

Now,  I  know.  Captain,  that  you  are  enthusiastic  and  have  full  faith  in 
the  feasibility  of  the  work  you  propose.  I  am  satisfied,  further,  that  if  the 
matter  was  left  entirely  to  you,  you  not  only  would  spend  every  dollar  that 
you  could  realize  out  of  the  bonds  in  proving  the  feasibilitj'  of  your  plans 


44 

of  transporting  ships,  but  jou  would  spend  all  the  private  means  that  jou 
could  in  any  yvay  raise,  bv  hypothecating  the  second  mortgage  bonds,  or 
even  your  private  estate. 

But  you  must  recollect  that  this  is  a  company,  will  have  directors,  will 
be  controlled  by  the  capital  that  is  put  in  it,  and  even  if  there  was  a  possi- 
bility of  the  success  of  your  enterprise  by  the  expenditure  of  a  large  sum 
of  money,  the  stock  of  this  company  might  be  held  by  men  who  would  be 
satisfied  with  the  thirty  to  forty  millions  they  had  already  received  and 
would  oppose  any  further  progress  of  the  work  or  expenditure  of  the 
means,  because  at  the  expiration  of  fifteen  years  after  the  completion  of 
the  work  the  Government  would  cease  to  be  responsible  for  either  the 
principal  or  interest  of  these  bonds. 

I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  state  these  objections  to  you,  because  you  had 
reason  to  understand  that  while  I  might  do  nothing  to  favor  your  project 
(because  I  was  not  entirely  satisfied  with  its  feasibility)  I  would  not  an- 
tagonize or  oppose  it.  Now  that  I  have  concluded  that  I  must  oppose  it, 
you  should  know  it  first. 

I  was  somewhat  surprised  when  I  saw  Senate  bill  No.  550,  to  incorpo- 
rate the  Maritime  Canal  Company  of  Nicaragua,  was  introduced.  I  sup- 
posed what  I  had  said  to  Admiral  Ammen  and  Captain  Phelps  would 
probably  prevent  anything  being  done  in  the  way  of  inaugurating  that 
company  until,  as  I  suggested  before  in  this  letter,  the  other  enterprises 
for  interoceanic  ship  communication  had  proved  a  failure,  and  my  first 
impulse  was  to  write  to  Senator  Miller,  stating  frankly  what  I  had  said  to 
these  gentlemen,  and  what  my  ideas  were  on  the  subject;  but  fortunately 
I  was  so  pressed  for  time  for  a  few  days  after  the  bill  was  introduced  that 
I  could  not  take  the  matter  up,  and  afterward  forgot  it,  until  I  saw  your 
bill,  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  and  I  confess  to  you  I  was  very  glad 
that  I  had  not  written  the  letter  which  I  had  contemplated  writing,  and  I 
shall  take  the  liberty  of  furnishing  Senator  Miller  a  copy  of  this  letter. 

Assuring  you  that  I  have  no  pride  in  the  establishing  of  any  particular 
line  or  route  for  the  transportation  of  vessels  between  the  two  oceans,  but 
only  to  see  the  work  done,  and  do  not  care  by  whom  it  is  done  provided 
it  is  under  American  auspices,  and  that  I  should  wish  your  enterprise  the 
same  success  that  I  would  if  my  own  name  was  connected  with  it  if  inau- 
gurated on  terms  that  were  not  going  to  make  the  Government  responsi- 
ble for  any  failure. 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

U.  S.  GRANT. 

[The  Times-Democrat  of  New  Orleans  published  the  following  letter 
April  nth,  1886,  as  the  N.  Y.  Herald  refused  to  print  it,  although  it  had 
just  given  to  the  public  the  preceding  letter  of  General  Grant.] 

Thomasville,  Ga.,  April  3,  1886. 
Editor  of  The  New  York  Herald  : 

Dear  Sir:  During  the  last  sixty  days,  a  pamphlet  entitled  "The  Cer- 
tainty of  the  NICARAGUA  CANAL  Contrasted  with  the  Uncertainties 


45 

of  the  EADS  SHIP  RAILWAY,  by  Daniel  Ammen,"  has  been  exten- 
sively circulated  in  Congress  and  throughout  the  country.  This  pamphlet 
is  full  of  gross  misstatements  respecting  the  Ship  Railway,  which,  on  ac- 
count of  the  high  naval  rank  of  its  author,  are  calculated  to  gravely  mis- 
lead the  public.  About  six  pages  of  it  are  devoted  to  such  offensive  per- 
sonalities and  billingsgate  in  relation  to  myself,  as  to  forbid  any  con- 
troversy whatever  on  my  part  with  its  author.  I  only  notice  the  pam- 
phlet to  correct  the  impression  likely  to  be  created  by  the  following  extract 
which  it  contains  from  a  private  letter  addressed  to  me  by  General  Grant 
on  the  13th  of  January,  1882,  relative  to  the  Ship  Railway  bill  then  pend- 
ing in  Congress  : 

'I  But  I  now  have  your  bill — No.  430 — before  me,  and  see  that  its  pro- 
visions are  so  entirely  at  variance  from  what  I  had  been  led  to  suppose 
you  intended  to  ask,  that  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  notify  you  that  I  shall  oppose 
it  in  its  present  form  with  all  my  ability.  I  do  this  because  I  feel  that  I 
have  been  deceived  as  to  what  you  intended  to  ask,  and  also  believe  that 
if  your  present  bill  passes,  the  Government  will  be  made  responsible  for 
six  per  cent,  interest  upon  a  large  bonded  indebtedness  even  if  your  en- 
terprise should  prove  a  total  failure." 

The  purpose  of  Admiral  Ammen  in  publishing  the  above  is  to  create  in 
the  public  mind  the  belief  that  I  deceived  General  Grant  in  1882,  just  as 
he  is  now  endeavoring,  by  grossly  distorting  its  provisions,  to  make  the 
public  believe  that  I  am  striving  to  deceive  it  with  the  present  Ship  Rail- 
way bill.  This  pamphlet  states  that  this  private  letter  will  soon  be  pub- 
lished. Accordingly,  on  the  5th  ultimo,  it  appeared  in  full  in  the  New 
York  Herald,  and  naturally  elicited  many  unjust  comments  from  other 
newspapers  throughout  the  country.  As  you  have  given  widespread 
currency  to  General  Grant's  letter,  I  beg  space  for  this  communication, 
which,  owing  to  my  recent  illness,  has  been  unavoidably^  delayed. 

To  enable  the  reader  to  know  who  deceived  General  Grant  in  this  mat- 
ter, it  is  necessary  to  state  certain  facts  before  submitting  the  reply  made 
to  his  letter. 

During  the  last  twenty-two  years  of  General  Grant's  life  our  friendship 
was  of  the  most  cordial  character,  a  fact  attested  by  his  private  letters  to 
me,  the  last  of  which  is  dated  May  13th,  1884,  more  than  two  years  after 
the  date  of  the  one  above  referred  to.  During  this  period  he  gave 
many  proofs  of  his  great  confidence  in  my  judgment  and  abilities  as  an 
engineer.  Within  the  last  month  I  have  received  a  letter  from  a  distin- 
guished Confederate  officer,  containing  a  reference  to  a  conversation  with 
Gen'l  Grant  on  the  subject  of  the  Isthmus  problem  as  late  as  1885,  during 
which  he  says  Gen'l  Grant  declared  that  he  considered  Mr.  Eads  the  very 
highest  authority  upon  that  subject  in  the  world.  During  the  last  days  of 
his  administration  I  talked  with  him  fully  and  freely  upon  the  importance 
of  a  ship  transit  across  the  Isthmus,  and  told  him  that  on  the  completion 
of  the  Jetties  I  intended  to  devote  myself  to  its  solution,  as  a  legitimate 
supplement  to  that  work,  as  it  would  virtually  extend  the  Mississippi  river 
into  the  Pacific.     I  referred  to  the  immense  benefit  he  could  confer  on  his 


46 

country  and  mankind  by  lending  his  great  influence  in  accomplishing  the 
proposed  work.  I  expressed  no  preference  at  that  time  for  any  one  of  the 
routes,  but  suggested  that  his  prominent  identification  with  the  enterprise 
would  be  a  legitimate  sequence  to  the  deep  interest  he  had  shown  during 
his  official  career  in  the  Isthmian  problem  and  in  the  opening  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi river.  He  expressed  an  earnest  wish  to  aid  the  undertaking,  and 
said  that  on  his  return  from  his  contemplated  tour  around  the  world  we 
should  talk  more  definitely  on  the  subject. 

During  Gen'l  Grant's  tour  I  took  up  the  study  of  this  problem  and  find- 
ing that  the  distance  between  the  mouth  of  the  Coatzocoalcos  (the  en- 
trance to  the  Tehuantepec  route)  and  Greytown  (the  entrance  to  the 
Nicaragua  route)  was  as  great  in  an  air-line  as  the  distance  from  New  York 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  at  Tallahassee,  I  saw  at  once  the  immense  advan- 
tage in  point  of  location  possessed  by  Tehuantepec.  I  then  satisfied  myself 
that  while  a  canal  was  not  practicable  at  Tehuantepec,  it  was  practicable 
to  carry  ships  over  that  Isthmus  by  railway.  Further  studies  satisfied  me 
that  their  transportation  by  rail  would  be  really  more  economical,  and  for 
several  reasons  more  desirable,  than  through  a  canal  with  locks.  I  was 
further  convinced  that  there  would  be  no  advantage  to  American  commerce 
by  this  long  and  much  more  distant  canal  with  locks,  over  the  short  sea- 
level  cut  proposed  by  De  Lesseps  at  Panama.  I  saw  also  that  a  very  serious 
objection  to  the  Nicaragua  canal  existed  in  the  fact  that  the  harbor  at  Grey- 
town,  once  possessing  an  entrance  depth  of  about  eighteen  feet,  had  been 
obliterated  by  the  sands  of  the  sea  and  the  local  drainage  of  the  tropical 
floods,  in  consequence  of  the  almost  total  abandonment  of  that  harbor  by 
the  San  Juan  river,  which  had  been  gradually  directed  into  another  channel, 
(the  Rio  Co  orado,)  which  nowconveysalmostthewholeflood  waters  of  Lake 
Nicaragua  through  Costa  Rica  to  the  sea  about  twenty  miles  further  east  than 
Greytown.  The  restoration  of  this  obliterated  harbor  on  the  sandy  coast 
of  Nicaragua  is  therefore  a  very  different  problem  from  that  of  the  im- 
provement of  any  existing  harbor  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  It  is,  in  fact, 
the  creation  of  a  new  harbor  where  none  exists.  Natural  harbors  on  sandy 
sea  coasts  are  always  kept  open  by  the  flood  discharges  of  rivers,  or  by  the 
tidal  discharges  from  estuaries,  sounds,  or  other  tidal  basins.  From  New 
York  to  Mexico  nearly  all  of  our  harbors  are  of  this  kind,  and  the  almost 
fruitless  attempts  to  improve  them  after  years  of  study  and  the  expendi- 
ture of  many  millions  attest  the  uncertainty  of  such  efforts.  To  under- 
take the  creation  of  a  harbor  among  sand  banks  where  none  exists,  and 
where  neither  of  the  two  natural  forces  are  present  to  aid  such  eff"^rt,  and 
to  maintain  the  harbor  intact  afterwards,  must  necessarily  be  still  more 
uncertain. 

Seeing  Gen'l  Grant's  name  announced  before  his  return,  as  the  probable 
president  of  the  Nicaragua  canal  company,  I  wrote  to  him  soon  after  his 
arrival,  and  pointed  out  these  objections  to  the  proposed  canal,  and  urged 
him  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  assuring  him  that  they  would  certainly 
prevent  its  construction  during  this  century,  and  that  I  did  not  want  to  see 


47 

him  couple  his  name  with  what  I  felt  sure  would  be  a  failure.  In  the  let- 
ter I  assured  him  that  a  ship  railway  would  be  made  across  Tehuantepec, 
and  that  for  many  reasons  it  would  be  preferable  to  a  canal.  Subse- 
quently, in  Mexico,  in  New  Orleans,  and  in  New  York,  during  personal 
interviews  in  1880  and  1881,  I  impressed  upon  him  these  views  and  my 
conviction  that  he  would  never  live  to  see  the  building  of  the  Nicaragua 
canal. 

General  Grant  knew  but  little  of  the  principles  of  mechanics,  or  of  hy- 
draulic engineering,  and  was  not  qualified  by  experience  or  education  to 
judge  of  the  practicability  of  a  ship  railway,  nor  of  the  engineering  diffi- 
culties at  Nicaragua.  His  son  Jesse  was  educated  as  an  engineer  and 
quickly  recognized  not  only  the  feasibility  of  the  ship  railway,  but  its  ad- 
vantages over  the  canal.  He  greatly  regretted  the  use  of  his  father's  name 
in  opposition  to  the  ship  railway,  the  success  of  which  he  thought  certain. 
No  doubt  his  arguments,  coupled  with  the  opinions  I  had  expressed,  in- 
duced his  father  to  assure  Hon  A.  G.  Cochran,  the  counsel  of  the  Ship 
Railway  Company,  about  the  ist  of  January,  1882,  that  he  would  write  to 
Senator  Miller  to  take  his  name  off  the  Nicaragua  canal  bill.  Soon 
after  this  promise,  the  letter  Ammen  has  published  was  received  by  me. 
I  immediately  sent,  by  Mr.  Jesse  R.  Grant,  the  following  reply  : 

Willard's  Hotel, 

Washington,  D.  C,  Jan.  21,  1882. 
General  U.  S.  Grant, 

New  York  City  : 

Dear  General  :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  letter 
of  January  13th,  in  which  you  inform  me  that  you  feel  it  your  duty  to  op- 
pose the  Ship  Railway  Bill.     *     *     * 

Appreciating  the  deep  interest  which  you  had  alwaj's  taken  in  the  ad- 
vance of  American  Commerce,  and  remembering  your  great  anxiety,  both 
in  public  and  private  life,  to  bring  about  a  solution  of  the  Isthmian  prob- 
lem, I  felt  very  desirous  that  you  should  fully  understand  my  project,  what 
I  proposed  to  do,  and  what  aid  from  the  Government  I  regarded  as  neces- 
sary. Hence  it  was  that  when  I  met  you  in  Mexico,  and  afterwards  on 
our  journey  home,  I  discussed  the  whole  matter  freely  with  you.  I  need 
hardly  say  that  when  I  succeeded  in  removing  your  doubts  as  to  the 
practicability  of  the  work  I  was  greatly  gratified. 

You  point  out  in  your  letter  certain  objections  to  the  bill  recently  intro- 
duced before  Congress  which,  you  say,  have  decided  you  to  oppose  its 
passage. 

You  will  no  doubt  remember  that  when  returning  home  on  the  steamer, 
I  handed  you  a  copy  of  the  bill  reported  by  the  Interoceanic  Committee  to 
the  last  Congress.  You  read  the  bill  and  I  had  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  you  failed  to  fully  understand  it.  The  Government  guarantee  therein 
provided  for,  was  a  three  per  centum  semi-annual  guarantee,  not  of  inter- 
est upon  bonds,  but  of  stock  dividends. 


48 

There  were  also  provisions  as  to  a  canal,  and  payments  for  the  same  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Railway.  You  remarked  at  the  time  that  you  did  not 
think  I  would  have  much  difficulty  in  passing  the  bill  as  it  left  no  risk  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  in  relation  to  the  practicability  of  the  rail- 
way. I  now  enclose  you  a  copy  of  the  bill  I  then  showed  you,  and  am 
satisfied  that  when  you  compare  it  with  the  bill  more  recently  introduced, 
you  will  find  that  they  substantially  agree.  If  there  be  any  difterence  I 
think  that  the  latter  bill  is,  in  some  respects,  even  more  favorable  to  the 
Government. 

As  I  understand  it  you  have  two  serious  objections  to  the  bill,  and  they 
are  as  follows,  viz  : 

istj  That  the  Company  might  never  complete  the  work,  and  in  this  case, 
under  its  guarantee,  the  Government  would  be  required  to  pay  for  an  in- 
definite period. 

2d,  The  liability  of  the  Government  might  be  made  to  attach  to  a  large 
amount,  for  the  construction  of  a  canal  merely,  and  without  the  practica- 
bility of  a  Ship  Railway  ever  having  been  demonstrated. 

I  am  unwilling  to  admit  that  the  bill  can  be  fairly  made  to  bear  this 
construction,  but  will  not  stop  to  argue  the  point,  because  I  freely  concede 
that  the  existence  of  the  slightest  doubt  upon  the  subject  renders  a  proper 
amendment  imperative.  I  certainly  never  intended  that  any  such  con- 
struction should  be  placed  upon  the  bill  and  shall  see  that  the  language  is 
so  changed  as  to  make  this  construction  impossible.  I  am  willing  that 
positive  provisions  shall  be  put  into  the  bill  to  the  effect  that  under  no 
circumstances  shall  the  Government  pay  upon  its  guarantee  for  a  longer 
period  than  twenty  years  from  and  after  the  date  of  the  testing  of  the  first 
ten  miles  of  railway  and  that  no  portion  of  the  guarantee  shall  apply  to 
any  canal  until  the  practicability  of  the  project  shall  have  been  demon- 
strated by  the  successful  transportation  of  a  loaded  vessel  over  ten  miles 
of  the  railway. 

I  never  contemplated  the  construction  of  a  canal  over  any  considerable 
distance  of  the  route,  and  am  very  sure  that  under  no  circumstances  will 
all  portions  of  the  canal,  taken  together,  (if  indeed  any  canal  at  all  be  con- 
structed,) equal  a  distance  of  ten  miles. 

The  bill  certainly  does  not  provide  that  the  improvement  of  the  river 
shall  entitle  the  Company  to  the  benefit  of  any  part  of  the  guarantee.  I 
am  satisfied  that  no  such  construction  could  be  sustained  for  a  moment, 
and  yet  I  am  entirely  willing  that  a  provision  shall  be  incorporated  into 
the  bill  concerning  the  matter  in  express  language. 

There  are  other  minor  matters  mentioned  in  your  letter,  but  as  you  have 
informed  me  verbally  that  you  do  not  regard  them  as  important,  I  will  not 
weary  you  by  referring  to  them. 

Will  you  kindly  advise  me,  by  early  mail,  whether,  if  the  bill  be  amended 
in  accordance  with  the  suggestions  herein  contained,  you  will  not  be  wil- 
ling to  withdraw  all  opposition  to  it.? 


49 

I  feel  satisfied  that  1  shall  build  the  Ship  Railway,  and  I  know  that  I 
can,  and  will,  make  it  a  complete  success.  Believe  me,  I  would  be  unwil- 
ling to  stake  my  reputation  upon  a  doubtful  experiment,  or  identify  the 
closing  years  of  my  life  with  a  failure.  I  am  deeply  anxious  that  when 
the  Railway  is  in  successful  operation  you  shall  be  classed  among  its 
earliest  and  strongest  friends. 

Soliciting  an  early  reply,  I  am,  dear  General, 
Very  sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)  JAS.  B.  EADS. 

Two  days  after  the  date  of  this  letter  I  received  the  foUowmg : 

New  York,  Jan.  23,  1882. 
Dear  Sir  :  I  showed  your  letter  to  father,  and  he  expresses  himself  as 
satisfied  with  the  letter,  and  I  have  just  wired  you  to  that  eflfect.     He  has 
written  to  Miller  explaining  the  error  he  made. 
Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)  J.  R.  GRANT. 

To  J   B.  Eads,  Esq^. 

On  the  same  day  I  received  the  following  telegram  : 

"  Letter  received.     Satisfactory.     Sent  copy  to  Miller.    J.  R.  G." 

Soon  after  this  I  received  a  brief  letter  from  Gen.  Grant  (now  mislaid) 
assuring  me  that  he  would  not  oppose  our  bill. 

The  letter  of  General  Grant  of  Jan.  13,  1882,  is  a  rehearsal  of  the  mis- 
constructions and  misrepresentations  published  at  the  time  by  Ammen  and 
Phelps  regarding  the  ship  railway  bill  then  pending.  As  Ammen  had  a 
copy  of  his  letter  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  was  ignorant  of  my  re- 
ply, or  of  General  Grant's  admission  thiit  he  was  in  error ;  and  the  fairness 
of  Ammen's  methods  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he  has  continued 
to  use  this  letter  to  give  color  to  his  misrepresentations  of  the  bill,  after 
Grant  had  written  to  Senator  Miller  explaining  the  error  he  had  made  re- 
garding it.  J.  R.  Grant's  letter  proves  that  his  father  did  this  immediately 
after  receiving  my  letter,  which  fact  Ammen  has  carefully  suppressed.  He 
says  in  his  present  pamphlet  he  read  the  letter  to  Hon.  A.  H.  Stephens, 
of  Georgia,  who  said  in  reply : 

"  Now  I  understand  it  all.  Captain  Eads  would,  under  his  bill,  construct 
his  ship  railway  without  any  cost,  and  indeed  with  a  very  considerable  en- 
dowment, and  then  without  ever  attempting,  or  indeed  intending  to  pass 
a  ship  from  sea  to  sea,  would  have  several  lines  of  railway  and  harbors  for 
small  vessels,  and  a  very  profitable  traffic  in  grain  and  other  merchandise." 

If  Mr.  Stephens  ever  said  anything  so  unjust  it  simply  proves  that  he 
never  examined  the  bill  and  was  grossly  deceived  by  Ammen,  for  the  bill 
was,  soon  after  the  date  of  Grant's  letter,  unanimously  reported  hy  the 
Senate  committee  on  commerce  to  the  Senate,  with  a  strong  report  in  its 
favor;  and  an  equally  favorable  report  was  made  by  the  House  committee 
on  Inter-oceanic  Canals  on  this  same  bill  which  Ammen  would  lead  the 


60 

reader  to  believe  was  such  a  transparent  fraud.  These  committee  reports 
were  made,  too,  in  defiance  of  the  utmost  efforts  of  Ammen  and  his  coad- 
jutors to  prevent  them.  The  most  that  they  did  accomplish  was  to  divide 
the  majority  who  were  in  favor  of  some  one  or  other  isthmian  transit  for 
ships,  and  thus  prevented  action  upon  either  bill  during  the  47th  Congress. 
Two  or  three  weeks  after  this  correspondence  I  wrote  to  Jesse  R.  Grant 
as  follows  : 

"The  sub-committee  (five  members  of  the  committee  of  commerce 
of  the  Senate)  have  agreed  to  report  unanimously  in  favor  of  the  Ship 
Railway  bill,  and  the  full  committee  have  authorized  the  printing  of  their 
report  before  final  action  is  taken  on  it.  *  *  *  In  the  meantime,  Am- 
men is  doing  all  he  can  to  defeat  us.  You  will  see  by  the  enclosed  slip, 
cut  from  the  latest  New  Orleans  newspaper,  that  U.  S.  Grant,  Sr.,  and  U. 
S.  Grant,  Jr.,  still  constitute  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  his  forces,  and  are 
to  share  the  honor  of  opposing  the  Ship  Railway  bill  so  long  as  he  can 
keep  them  thus  prominently  before  Congress  and  the  country.  Of  course, 
I  regret  this  for  several  reasons:  ist.  Because  I  do  not  like  to  see  the 
honored  name  of  General  Grant  so  prominently  identified  with  a  pro- 
ject which  will  inevitably  prove  a  failure,  even  should  Congress  fail  to  pass 
my  bill.  2d.  Instead  of  occupying  the  impregnable  position  of  a  patri- 
otic promoter  of  an  isthmian  highway  for  ships,  whose  great  influence, 
official  power,  and  high  position  were  directed  to  the  solution  of  the  ques- 
tion, it  places  him  in  the  attitude  of  a  partisan,  opposing  a  project  for  solv- 
ing the  problem  which  is  supported  by  an  overwhelming  mass  of  expert 
testimony,  and  which  avails  of  a  location  not  only  admitted  by  every  one 
to  be  much  superior  to  Nicaragua,  but  in  a  territory  in  which  he  has  al- 
ready important  individual  interests,  whose  inhabitants  are  his  friends,  and 
who  are  earnestly  desiring  to  see  the  consummation  of  the  enterprise  which 
he  seems  to  be  opposing.  3d.  I  regret  it  because  it  gives  color  to  the  num- 
berless misstatements  that  have  been  published  throughout  the  country, 
to  the  effect  that  I  had  received  a  letter  from  General  Grant  upbraiding  me 
with  having  deceived  him  as  to  the  terms  of  my  proposition,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  he  had  withdrawn  from  the  directory  of  my  company  [in 
which  he  was  never  interested.]  No  less  than  three  difflerent  articles  to 
this  effect  were  shown  me  yesterday,  cut  from  recent  newspapers.  4th.  I 
regret  it,  because  having  assured  me  in  his  last  letter  that  he  would  throw 
no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  my  measure,  this  use  of  his  name  by  Admiral 
Ammen  keeps  in  its  way  the  most  serious  obstacle  which  it  has  to  encoun- 
ter, and  furnishes  to  Ammen  the  only  possible  means  with  which  he  can 
hope  to  defeat  my  bill.  He  totally  disregards  the  advice  of  your  father  and 
is  determined  to  use  his  name  as  long  as  he  will  permit  it. 

"  As  the  Ship  Railway  becomes  more  and  more  popular,  some  of  the 
blackmailers  become  more  and  more  desperate  and  vicious.  I  send  you  a 
slip  referring  to  the  republication  of  a  scandalous  letter  published  two  or 
three  years  ago ;  to-day  the  same  paper  republishes  the  libellous  statement 
published  by  a  New  York  paper  against  me  about  three  years  ago,  and 
which  it  afterwards  retracted." 

The  reader  can  judge  of  the  spirit  which  prompts  Admiral  Ammen  now, 
from  the  fact  that  he  refers  in  his  last  pamphlet  to  this  stale  slander,  long 
since  refuted  and  retracted,  and  which,  if  true,  could  not  possibly  affect 
the  merits  of  the  canal  or  the  ship  railway. 

Gen.  Grant  says  in  his  letter  of  Jan.  13,  1882  : 

"  I  was  somewhat  surprised  when  I  saw  Senate  bill  No.  550,  to  incorpo- 
rate the  Maritime  Canal  Co.  of  Nicaragua.     I  supposed  what  I  had  said  to 


51 

Admiral  Ammen  and  Capt.  Phelps  would  probably  prevent  anything  being 
done  in  the  way  of  inaugurating  that  company  until,  as  I  suggested  before 
in  this  letter,  the  other  enterprises  for  interoceanic  ship  communication 
had  proved  a  failure." 

In  bill  No.  550,  Gen.  Grant's  name  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  list  of 
incorporators,  and  the  above  extract  proves  that  this  use  of  it  was  made 
without  his  knowledge  or  consent  by  Ammen  and  Phelps,  who  were  then 
interested  with  Menocal  and  other  officers  of  the  Government  in  the  con- 
cession from  Nicaragua. 

The  following  additional  extracts  from  the  letter  prove  that  he  had  no 
pecuniary  interest  with  these  parties  at  that  time  in  their  concession,  if 
indeed  he  ever  had  : 

"  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  state  these  objections  to  you  because 
you  had  reason  to  understand  that  while  I  might  do  nothing  to  favor  your 
project  (because  I  was  not  entirely  satisfied  with  its  feasibility)  I  would 
not  antagonize  or  oppose  it.  *  *  *  Assuring  you  that  I  have  no  pride 
in  the  establishing  of  any  particular  line  or  route  for  the  transportation  of 
vessels  between  the  two  oceans,  but  only  to  see  the  work  done,  and  do  not 
care  by  whom  it  is  done  provided  it  is  under  American  auspices,  and  that 
I  should  wish  your  enterprise  the  same  success  that  1  would  if  my  own  name 
was  connected  with  it,  if  inaugurated  on  terms  that  were  not  going  to 
make  the  Government  responsible  for  its  failure. 
"  I  am  very  truly  yours, 

"  U.  S.  GRANT." 

The  following  reply  of  Admiral  Ammen  to  a  Senator  who  wanted  Gen'l 
Grant  for  the  third  term,  gives  the  secret  of  this  persistent  use  of  his  name 
by  the  holders  of  the  Nicaragua  concession.  It  will  be  found  in  the  North 
Am.  Review,  Nov.,  1885.     I  have  italicised  a  portion  of  it : 

"  Senator,  There  are  a  great  many  who  would  make  good  presidents,  you 
among  the  number;  I  will  be  glad  to  vote  for  you  if  nominated,  but  Gett'l 
Grant  only  in  my  belief  can  speedily  bring  about  the  construction  of  the 
Nicaragua  Ca?tal."     *     *     * 

The  closing  sentence  of  Gen'l  Grant's  letter  expressed  his  true  position 
on  the  Isthmian  question.  He  had  no  pride  in  establishing  any  particular 
route  between  the  two  oceans,  but  only  to  see  the  work  done;  he  cared 
not  by  whom,  so  it  was  inaugurated  on  terms  that  would  not  make  the 
Government  responsible  for  its  failure.  These  are  the  utterances  of  a 
true  patriot  actuated  by  no  pride  of  opinion  or  self-interest,  but  anxious 
that  his  country  and  the  world  should  enjoy  at  the  earliest  mo- 
ment the  benefit  of  a  ship  transit  somewhere  across  the  Isthmus.  While 
he  was  living.  Admiral  Ammen  strove  to  place  him  in  an  entirely  different 
position  before  the  world.  Now  that  he  is  dead,  he  makes  an  unwarranta- 
ble use  of  a  private  letter  written  four  years  ago  under  a  total  misappre- 
hension of  facts  (which  he  promptly  acknowledged)  to  make  the  public 
believe  that  he  was  opposing  the  Ship  Railway  bill  in  1882,  when  in  fact  he 
had  verbally  assured  Mr.  Cochran  that  he  would  not  oppose  it ;  had  writ- 


52 

ten  to  me  that  he  would  place  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  its  passage,  and 
had  given  the  same  assurance  to  his  son  Jesse. 

He  would  make  the  country  believe,  even  now,  that  Gen'l  Grant  was, 
like  himself,  and  his  partners,  Phelps,  Menocal,  Merry  and  other  less 
prominent  owners  of  the  concession  to  Menocal,  an  interested  advocate  of 
a  canal  scheme,  (of  questionable  feasibility  and  merit,)  and  the  leading 
partner  of  a  party  of  impractical  government  officers,  said  to  be  nine  in 
number,  (with  other  associates  less  creditable,)  who  had  used  their  offi- 
cial influence  to  have  their  route  surveyed  and  resurveyed  at  the  public 
expense,  without  authority  of  Congress  to  increase,  if  possible,  the  cash 
value  of  their  concessions  from  Nicaragua.  Now  that  their  project  has 
totally  failed,  their  concession  having  expired,  the  chagrined  and  embit- 
tered Admiral  strives  to  defeat  the  Ship  Railway  bill  by  misrepresenting 
the  true  sentiments  of  the  dead  hero,  and  by  the  suppression  of  facts 
would  now  lower  him  to  the  same  selfish  and  unenviable  level  with  him- 
self and  his  less  prominent  coadjutors.  The  final  wrecking  of  their 
scheme  in  May,  1884,  is  thus  related  by  one  of  them,  Capt.  Merry,  of  San 
Francisco,  according  to  the  Chronicle  of  that  city : 

"  A  syndicate  of  New  York  and  San  Francisco  capitalists  had  been 
formed  to  aid  the  construction  of  the  canal  under  the  Menocal  concession, 
of  which  syndicate  Gen'l  Grant,  Mr.  Fish,  the  president  of  the  bank,  and 
others  interested  in  that  institution,  were  members.  Admiral  Ammen  had 
taken  up  his  pen  to  affix  his  signature  to  a  construction  contract,  when  a 
boy  rushed  in  and  announced  the  failure  of  the  Marine  Bank.  Foresee- 
ing the  consequences  of  that  failure.  Admiral  Ammen  laid  down  his  pen, 
and  being  unable  to  obtain  the  necessary  financial  aid  our  concession  was 
allowed  to  expire." 

"  St'c  transit  gloria  fnundi.^' 

JAS.  B.  EADS. 


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